A Nightmare in Passing
by Master Guardian
Summary: Jaune had a dream of something terrible, and for the life of him doesn't know if its the future or some twisted piece of his imagination. With every second counting, He plans to make sure or at least protect what he cares for and loves even if that means breaking the rules. Mostly Arkos with some extra love from our wonderful Yang. Arc stories incoming Enjoy. Some Spoilers FYI
1. First Glimpse

A Nightmare in Passing

Grimm were running rampant the ground was shaking and a dragon flew overhead screaming and roaring as it released black droplets from its body that turned into grimm upon touching the ground. But none of that mattered to Pyrrha and Jaune as they ran from the tower that was shaking from the battle taking place beneath it between Ozpin and Cinder. They were out of breath as they stopped to look at the destruction around them before hearing the sound of fire and and wrenching metal, briefly seeing Cinder rise up through the elevator and rocket out of sight higher into the tower…..

"But Ozpin….." Jaune said with worry as he did not see the headmaster pursuing that crazed lunatic who was responsible for the disruptions here at beacon as well as Vale.

"There's no time….. Go, Get to Vale and call for help…" Pyrrha commanded as she turned to Jaune the most serious expression ever to grace her face.

"Whaaa, what are you going to do?" Jaune asked completely perplexed as she turned back and looked at the the tower it clicked in his head.

"No… no Pyrrha you can't you saw how powerful she is, Pyrrha I won't let you do….."

He was silenced as she placed her hands on his face and leaned in kissing him for the first time, what she always wanted as his arms began to wrap around and draw her in closer. The thud of her heart, Jaune could feel it beating rapidly in time with his as she placed a hand on his chest.

"I'm sorry" Pyrrha spoke as she used her semblance to force Jaune backwards into an empty locker and sealed it shut.

"Hey, Wait stop stop Pyrrha please don't do this." Jaune begged as she entered the coordinates of Vale. The pleading in his eyes met her sorrowful resigned eyes as she pressed the launch button and felt utter despair and resignation enter her as she watched it fly away. She then turned and walked into the tower, The broken elevator she used her semblance to force it to move up to the top floor were Cinder stood fire in hand speaking to the gargantuan grimm dragon that was peering into the room of Ozpin's office.

As the elevator door opened her spear launched out at Cinder barely missing her as Pyrrha launched herself shield first into Cinder. She rebounded back landing on her feet pulling her spear and shield back to her in a readied stance. Cinder lobbed fire at her and Pyrrha dodged with ease as she moved in to strike keeping the distance between them short to maintain her advantage of not being hit.

Things were looking up as she got a few good hits in and dodged the return fire and managed to get the jump on Cinder literally as she tackled her around the waist and pulled her spear up against her throat. Cinders hands held onto it melting it and causing it to snap in three as the Dragon roared and flew into the tower causing both to move as the room got smashed, gears falling around them as the sound of ticking stopped. Pyrrha threw her shield at Cinder and then reached out to all the gears crashing one into her before sending all the rest to pile on top of her. The look of shock was clear on Cinders face as she was buried, before she exerted herself using the maidens power already taxed to blow them all off of her.

One of the gears slammed into Pyrrha her aura fading as the amount of damage she sustained from her fight with penny, the grimm the machine and now cinder was to much.

' _Jaune'_ She thought as she threw her shield at Cinder as Cinder materialized a bow and arrow firing rapidly in return. The arrow hit the shield splitting into many pieces before reforming and piercing Pyrrhas achilles heel. She collapsed in pain and tried to stand only to end up on her hands and knees unable to move.

Cinder slowly walked around her stopping in front of Pyrrha. Pyrrha looked up no fear in her eyes as she met cinders gaze.

"Do you believe in Destiny?" Pyrrha asked

"Yes" As Cinder materialized a bow and arrow into her hand and aimed it at Pyrrha's chest before firing.

Jaune woke up in a cold sweat and leapt from his bed as he looked over at his teammates beds and saw Pyrrha fast asleep in her bed. Ren and Nora were asleep as well the snores from Nora filling the room as the sounds of screaming started to leave Jaunes mind. He got up and moved over to Pyrrha's desk and moved the chair next to her bed. He sat heavily and reached out a hand clasping his around her delicate hand. She was still safe, sound asleep and alive, he had to keep it that way. He felt her stir and thin green slivers peek out from between the closed eyelids as she groggily looked at him

"Jaune…." she feebly croaked as he put his hand on her cheek and she felt the warmth and snuggled back into her pillow rubbing her cheek against his hand as her eyes fully opened to look at him locking onto the blue eyes she had come to love.

"You ok?" she whispered as he had never been so bold but she wasn't complaining, as he just looked at her before he leaned forward and snaked his arms around her pulling her into a hug. She felt a few wet splotches on her shoulder that could only be his drool or tears, but opted for the latter as she tentatively wrapped her arms around him.

"What's wrong Jaune?" she asked quietly as he shook gently tears freely falling from his eyes now.

"You can't disappear, you can't send me away, ever promise me." He choked out as he gripped her tighter.

She looked at him confused and started to speak when he cut her off "Promise me" he gasped out his how body trembling.

"I Promise Jaune" Pyrrha whispered as she eyed him nervously. He just held her tightly for a few minutes as her brain began to catch up with everything around her.

"Jaune what's going on?" Pyrrha asked starting to really worry now as she tried to sit up and basically got pulled into Jaune's lap as he didn't release her from his arms. She tilted her head up to look at him and could see the beginning of another emotion she had only seen a few times before in his eyes. She smiled and tightened her hold on him as he placed his lips on her forehead and then brought a hand up to her chin tilting it up and lowered his forehead to hers.

"You are my destiny Pyrrha, to be by my side always." Jaune whispered as he tilted his head down and capturing her lips with his. She gasped as she felt her entire body tingle and respond with pushing with her lips her hands tightening and pulling Jaune closer.

After about 10 minutes of making out she shivered from the cold before tugging on him pulling him back to the bed, he laid down next to her holding her until they both drifted off to sleep. No more nightmares came to Jaune that night as he slept while Pyrrha had the best dreams imaginable.

Pyrrha woke first and did her morning yawn and stretch before she realized she could barely move. A pair of arms were holding her tightly and it took a moment before last night came back to her and she realized that it wasn't a dream. Her face burned bright red as she felt the warmth from Jaune radiating around her. She snuggled back into him as her eyes scanned the room making contact with another pair of eyes that were looking back at her with a sparkle and the mischievous smile attached that could only be one person, as Nora gave her a thumbs up, Ren on the other hand was not in the room and Pyrrha could only imagine what he thought upon taking in the sight. Nora got up and crept out of the room leaving the two alone and Pyrrha sighed with relief knowing that at least for the moment that she was safe.

Jaune began to stir as he moved his arms, his one hand moved up from her waist and stopped on her breast giving it squeeze causing her to moan. She felt her entire body warm up at his touch and pressed herself against him even more as he groped her again pulling her tighter to him. Jaune saw red as his eyes opened up as he felt his arms being moved around and realized he had a very firm hold of Pyrrha who was in his bed for some reason. He jumped up spacing out last night as he realized where his hand was.

Pyrrha very red in the face rolled over and looked at him as he kinda smiled sheepishly before a pillow was slammed into his face. he stumbled back and then saw her smiling.

"Good morning to you too Jaune" she said as she got up and laughed at his red face. He was embarrassed for sure about what he had done albeit in all honesty she didn't mind because it was a accident and two because she had been craving his attention for awhile now.

"Uhmm… sorry about that Pyrrha, i didn't mean to do that….." Jaune said as he looked at her that ashamed expression on his face. She just looked at him before getting up and poking him in the chest with a finger making him step back, his back now to the wall again as he felt a small trickle of fear run through him before she smiled and leaned forward kissing him.

"Shhh, It's ok" Pyrrha said as she stepped back placing a finger on his lips.

Jaune just looked quizzically at her before she gave him a hug and asked him what had bothered him last night? Jaune felt the blood drain from his face as he looked at her, he stumbled back into the wall and slowly slid down until he was on the floor. Pyrrha rushed to his side putting her hands on his face as she said his name over and over, but he wasn't hearing her as the memory flooded back to what he saw. The tower, the dragon, the fire woman and Pyrrha…

 ***Smack*** Jaune felt his cheek burn as he looked up to see tears pouring down Pyrrha's face as she raised her hand to strike him again the sound of her voice screaming his name coming back to his brain as his senses flipped back on.

"Py..rr..ha… he wheezed out as he realized his voice was cracked and quiet. Pyhrra pulled him close and the contact felt like it was burning him as he realized he felt like ice. He had no idea what happened, just that his hands looked even paler than normal. He met her eye and she just buried her face in his shoulder crying. After a few moments Jaune finally felt capable of moving his arm which felt like lead and put it around her pulling her in. He felt exhausted and was really confused because he just woke up, he wasn't even in his armor. He just held the crying spartan for awhile until the sniffles stopped and she finally leaned back and looked at him again.

"Jaune, do not ever scare me like that again!" she exclaimed as she had a pained expression written all over her face.

He looked and felt so confused as she finally got up pulling him to his feet as well. He felt his aura kick on and started to feel better and after only a few moments felt just like he did when he first woke up. He smiled at Pyrrha and then blinked as he looked out the window and could see the sun had moved from dawn to a bit later.

"Pyrrha what happened?" Jaune asked as he saw her start to calm down from her hysterical state. She looked at him making sure he wasn't about to go all white again and then trembled a bit as she spoke about what she had witnessed.

" _You opened your mouth and then started gasping for air like you couldn't breathe, then you stumbled back and crumpled on the floor and i didn't know what to do. You just looked like you completely lost any will to live, your heart stopped beating and your aura wouldn't even kick on. you did not respond to my shaking or screaming so i smacked you and then you finally came around. you were just there for a few minutes and then we sat her awhile"_

She recounted as she looked around and saw that 3 hrs had passed since they had gotten up. She was also confused because it felt like only a few minutes that things had slowed down.

She tried to gather her thoughts before she felt Jaunes hand grab ahold of hers and then he smiled and apologized for scaring her. He had no idea what happened but noted that it was gone now. He felt extremely hungry and tugged her toward the door. She just sighed and let him pull her out of the room and down the hallway. They made it to the cafeteria which was practically empty at this point. Everyone was in class and so they had the area to themselves.

Getting some food from the kitchen area they sat down together and ate in silence, Jaunes hand never leaving Pyrrha's. She felt the rest of the morning come back to her and felt the blush returning to her face… Jaune had actually kissed her, She was so certain she would have to make the first move but she had been wrong which was rare. Whatever had caused him to have the wake up call to her feelings for him she was glad it kicked him in the right direction finally. She smiled contently as she leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder.

Jaune just smiled as he stopped eating and enjoyed the moment. How had he been so dense to this? The most perfect woman he had ever met wanted him, Jaune Arc of all people and even though he had talked big at the start of the year, that had only been hollow confidence. He was still freaked out about the vivid dream he had but it seemed like a foggy distant memory the only clear image was the arrow sticking out of Pyrrha…..

The clock chimed noon causing both Pyrrha and Jaune to jump. The sounds of students leaving class came a few minutes later as the dining hall began to fill up for lunch. Jaune spotted Team RWBY as well Ren and Nora approaching them. The curious eyes of Blake and the sly grin on Yang's face was all that was needed to figure out that they knew something. The red faced schnee was the icing on the cake however as Ruby didn't seem to care. Nora had that super smile she was sporting and Ren wasn't making any form of eye contact either of them….

"So 5 on Nora… "Jaune spoke up as everyone sat down only to get a deadpan Obviously from Ren who still wasn't meeting their eye. Yang on the other hand was leaning forward all smiles as she just tossed it out there.

"Take it you were both up all night then?" causing everyone else to just facepalm at her lack of discretion. Jaune just turned a bit red while Pyrrha simply nodded which got a scandalous gasp from Weiss

"Really! you would think that you would at least do it somewhere without your team members present."As the implication sunk in Pyrrha's eyes widened

"N...nooo…..noooo that's not it, just trouble sleeping. Pyrrha stammered as her face turned beet red.

"Oh? Nora said you were both naked rolling around making a ton of noise and what not all night?" Weiss continued as Ren finally looked up at Jaune the red disappearing before he turned to Nora who started wolfing pancakes and other food into her mouth. Everyone else stared at the pink haired girl as she shrugged and mumbled through the food, "iittt cuda bee dram….." she chewed out as she munched down on everything. Ren just shook his head and explained to Jaune that he woke up and saw them in the bed together with the blankets up and then Nora woke up telling him the story thus he left to not be embarrassed.

To which they went to class without them and Nora shared Jaunes exploits with the others and yeah full circle. After that misunderstanding got cleared up however both Yang and Ren looked at Jaune.

"So why were you in Pyrrha's bed?" Jaune just went red and silent as Pyrrha began to fidget in her chair. Clearly something was up, and everyone could see that. Yang poked a few more times before Jaune cracked and leaned over kissing Pyrrha saying "Bad dreams, so we cuddled" Question marks were written over everyone's faces besides Yang and Ruby, Yang sporting a kind surprised disappointed face. Ruby of course who was oblivious to the awkward silence and asked the direct question not the other one.

"You had a bad dream Jaune? or did Pyrrha? we can help you, I sometimes have scary dreams and Yang will hold me too…." she trailed off while Yang burned a bright red at her sisters explanation and at the thought of holding Pyrrha or Jaune…..

Jaune and Pyrrha both looked at each other bright red before shrugging and standing up. They walked away from the table in silence. They made it to the doors and turned left heading back to the dorm as the wind picked up for a moment a gentle breeze blowing over them. Jaune just stared at the ground unsure what to do because he didn't think he could talk about the dream without having another attack and Pyrrha was at a loss as well since it wasn't hers to share. She reached over though and grabbed his hand giving it a gentle squeeze as they approached the main building.

The gang watched from their table, shock on their faces at the sudden attitude change. It was only a few minutes before the two disappeared from sight around the building corner and at that point everyone met each other's gazes before settling back into their food. A mutual decision to get to the bottom of it later. Ruby decided at least to talk to Jaune, leader to leader like last time in the hopes of at least helping her friend out. Nora and Yang just made eye contact and shrugged both plotting to beat the answer out of Jaune later. Nora because she was nosey and Yang because jokes, bad puns and a strange glint in her eye.

As Pyrrha and Jaune made it back to the dorm room they locked the room and laid down cuddling back in bed while they both got consumed in their own thoughts. About an hour passed before they were pulled from their thoughts as Ren walked in and glanced at them turning red before he moved over to his bed and flopped down.

"Sorry we left so suddenly… we...were still trying to figure out what happened….I'm sorry" Pyrrha spoke up as her and Ren made eye contact.

He just shrugged "Just watch out for Nora she really wants to know…." before he pulled a book out and began to read.

Jaune barely listening to the conversation closed his eyes snuggling his face into the back of Pyrrha's neck. He just smiled as his mind drifted off and after awhile his mind went back to thinking about the dream. He wasn't sure but he felt he had seen the woman before…. He just watched it all play over in his mind all the way to him waking up right before the arrow hit. His arms tightening around Pyrrha was the only indication she got that something was off as she rotated to look at him and saw his eyes closed and that he had a pained face.

She put a hand on his cheek and lowered her lips to his, giving him gentle kisses as she tried to rouse him. It took another five minutes before his eyes fluttered open and they were bloodshot making his normal blue eyes look purplish. She was deeply concerned and asked what happened but Jaune couldn't seem to speak.

It was at that moment that Nora and Yang both walked in with smiles on their faces. A perfect plan had been thought out and prepared Nora held Jaune while Yang asked the questions. But alas the plan fell apart as their eyes landed on the pained face that Jaune had as Pyrrha did her best to soothe and comfort him.

"What's wrong?" Yang moved quickly kneeling by the fellow blonde as she reached for his free hand and helded it. Nora wasn't sure what to do so she moved over by Ren and sat down.

"It's the dream, I can't talk about it without it somehow causing me pain so I don't know what to do…." He said in a hoarse whisper. Yang just nodded and rubbed his back with her free hand while her and Pyrrha looked at each other both with questions and concern in their eyes.

Jaune sat for a few minutes collecting his thoughts, It wasn't the first time he had dreams of things and they came true and that was what scared him. It was almost as if he could dream into the future but that was silly right? And regardless the question still remained how far away did this dream happen. And if it was actually just a dream. It was definitely here at beacon as he recognized the clock tower. But it was hard to say when…

He thought back to when he was a kid and used to dream of going out with his sisters one day, and that the bridge they crossed every day would snap and break because a vehicle drove over it behind them causing them to all fall. He remembered the day weeks later while they were out playing that they approached said bridge and when they got there Jaune froze causing them all to look at him. A truck had pulled up and asked for directions and then proceeded to drive out onto the bridge before it collapsed under the weight. The driver made it out and jumped to the hillside surviving and the girls all freaked over the incident. He remembered his dad saying it was lucky they stopped otherwise they could've all been seriously hurt or worse…..

He never really gave it much thought back then, just that whenever he got the sense of deja'vu he would remember and react to how his dreams played out preventing whatever it was that he thought would happen. His youngest sister trying to cook food and setting it on fire, or the kids going out to play and Grimm attacks happening in said forest near their home. He had been lucky he always felt, but now he was scared. It had been awhile since his last nightmarish dream. So he hoped maybe it was just a nightmare, one that never came to pass.

They ended up skipping the classes for the rest of the day much to the displeasure of Professor Oobleck and Glynda, Professor Port didn't seem to notice as he was regaling one of his youthful huntsmen stories. Jaune and Pyrrha sat in the room went for a walk and sparred to take their mind off of things. Yang stayed with them for awhile, still concerned at least until Ports class ended when she rejoined her team. She told Jaune that she would be around if he needed to talk about anything. Giving him a hug as she went, Pyrrha just smiled grateful that she knew others cared for Jaune.

It was around dinner time when Ruby in a swirl of rose petals jumped on Jaune after finding them on the rooftop taking a break from their sparring. He seemed at least better to her then how he was this morning and told both of them to come down and eat. Practically trying to drag them down with her as her stomach rumbled.

"Comon! We can't miss the cookies and dessert! And other good food" She practically begged as Jaune couldn't help but follow along at the small girl's whim. Pyrrha laughed as she followed them down and back to the dorm to drop off their gear. They laughed as she recounted class and how Cardin got in trouble for declaring he could probably handle Glynda Goodwitch in more than one way to which she made him spar with her and basically crushed him into the ground in front of the class. Even Nora and Yang were speechless as the fight lasted 10 seconds.

 _Cardin got up on the platform facing Glynda and as soon as the bell dinged she raised wand up and then pointed it down causing Cardin to fall to the ground before using causing a purplish pink effect to crush him to the ground. His aura drained rapidly as he laid there and the fight was called so fast. He didn't move for awhile as the lecture continued and at the end of class his teammates came down to carry him to the hospital wing….._

Jaune just winced as even he felt maybe that was overdoing it a bit much but then again, Cardin was Cardin so whatever came to him he probably deserved. Pyrrha just shook her head doing her best to keep the smirk from completely dominating her face as they entered the cafeteria. Team CRDL was nowhere to be seen as they joined JNPR and RWBY at their table.

Weiss and Blake were arguing about the homework assigned from Professor Peach, whom no one had ever seen.

"But it doesn't make sense why we would even need to learn about plants and herbs when we can just get the prepared medical kits as well as the fact we have our scrolls for emergency. Why should we have to go out and learn how to identify what plants can be used as substitutes. Schnee made products are far more capable and advanced….." Weiss ended despite the deadpan 'are you serious look' Blake was giving her.

"And what are you going to do if all you're prepared supplies, are expired, tampered with or gone? Then what? You just hope it works out?!" Blake exclaimed her voice raising at the ridiculousness of the conversation.

"Weiss! Part of being a huntress or a huntsmen means being able to handle any situation, not relying on something that may not always be there to save you….. You need to be able to think for yourself and adapt if you're going to be able to survive in this harsh world…." Blake finished in a quiet whisper as she got up and walked away from her team. Weiss got up in a huff a few minutes later stating that she was going to visit Ms. Goodwitch about their homework assignment.

Yang just looked on with raised eyebrows while Ruby shook her head. Ever since the dock incident last week, even with Weiss and Blake reconciling with each other, they still were arguing intensely over seemingly trivial things and for the life of them that had no idea why?

Ruby sighed as she looked over at Jaune with helpless eyes as he sat down and it only took a moment before Jaune couldn't stand the sad look anymore and got up and walked away briskly into the kitchen. After about 30 minutes he came out with three plates loaded with cookies. And placed them in front of her.

"Thanks Jauuun*..Munch*..eee... Ruby said as she smiled piling a few cookies into her mouth. Jaune just shook his head smiling while Yang just awwed feeling a familiar small swell of sweetness towards Jaune for at least bringing her sister back up from her sad demeanor.

"So whats up with those two?" Jaune asked as everyone else dug in and he watched Ruby, Thinking back to when he had been down and she had boosted him up that he could make it as a leader because he needed to be now. The girl was something special akin to a sister to him now and he couldn't help himself.

Ruby was smiling after one plate was cleared away, She just shrugged and explained that they had been going back and forth over pretty much everything the last few days regardless of whether it was even a worthy thing to argue about. She wasn't sure what to do honestly but Yang was about to go on a intervention strike because she was tired of the late night arguing and was waking up crabby every morning which meant if she was woken up tomorrow on their first saturday off their room was going to have a new outside view….

"So Jauney boy…. Wanna share some of the hot steamy news" Yang spoke with a wink as she looked at the blonde and redhead as both faces turned tomato. Jaune just looked down embarrassed as thoughts started filling his mind of things that could've happened…..

Evident on his face as a small nosebleed began to form and Pyrrha smacked him upside the head as she tried to rein her own thoughts in.

"Whaa…. Weee haven't done anything Yang" Pyrrha stumbled over her words as she got up and walked away her mind refusing to back down as it played a more intense image of Jaunes strong hands wrapped around her while she was snuggled up to him, one hand squeezing and groping her chest while the other slowly slid down the front of her stomach into her pants….

"GAHHHHHHH!" Pyrrha yelled as she bolted from the room and back to the dorm face aflame. Jumping into the shower and turning it on cold to cool off.

Jaune just thunked his head on the table as Yang moved next to him putting her arms on the table and leaning her back against the edge.

"Aww c'mon Lady-killer, share with a deprived woman" she said as she poked him in the side and was met with no response. She tried a few more times using different methods to get his attention ranging from the poking to dripping some cold water on his head. She sighed raising her hands up, a devilish smile crossing her face as she leaned over her face close to his ear and whispered something in his ear as that made him jump up and grab her arm dragging her out of the room and away. Ruby, Nora and Ren just looked at each other and shrugged digging back into the pile of remaining cookies.

Yang was surprised as she found herself after a few minutes of dragging in a small mazed garden she never noticed before. Jaune dragged her through several turns before stopping at a small pond with a bench and sat down signaling her to join him. She smirked and giggled as she took a seat next to him.

"Aww you took me out here for a nice romantic get-away from p-money, you know she'll let Nora break your legs if she finds out…." Yang laughed out as she cast a sideway glance at the boy trying to lighten the mood. Sadly it didn't work as Jaune sunk farther down and brooded.

"Jaune comon, I was joking, I really am happy for you and Pyrrha regardless of the situation with us. Do you really think I would just go up and tell her." Yang said in a more soft and sad tone.

"Oh hey Pyrrha back about two months ago me and Jaune had some fun together after catching him at a bar dancing and seeing a cool side of him…" she trailed off in a quiet voice as she sat there her fingers starting to wring each other a faint blush as memories came back to her. All Yang could think right now was that despite all the happiness she felt for her friend and the special bond they had formed she was still partially jealous.

She knew that Pyrrha loved Jaune, hell everyone could see it but him and she didn't want to hurt one of her best friends. That's why when she and Jaune had their moments they only stayed as that. Moments. She sighed and leaned over pulling him into a hug as they sat there quietly Jaune finally calming down as he felt a mixture of confusing emotions playing through him. He really liked Pyrrha, he couldn't believe she even liked him back and then there was Yang who for all intents and purposes was also a crush and liked him as well that when they fooled around a few times was very memorable. Between the dancing and late night hang outs cruising through the town on her bike, he began to experience a more wild side to himself, and it helped with his confidence.

"I don't know what to do Yang….. I can see the images so clear in my mind, and I don't want them to come to pass. Im scared im soo scared…." Jaune said as he finally was able to speak.

I need to become stronger, Far stronger than anything or anyone so I can protect my friends, family, those I care about, those I love….. Jaune trailed off as he looked at the pond. Yang just smiled as she leaned over and put her head on his shoulder for a few minutes while they sat in silence. She knew that she could not on her own volition hurt p-money but still just a few minutes close to Jaune and she could feel all the pushed down urges start to surge up again.

She sat up after a few minutes and put a hand on his cheek and turned his head towards hers.

"No matter what happens, Everything will be ok and everyone will be safe. Promise yourself Mister Arc that you won't let anything happen to the Lovely Ladies of Team RWBY and JNPR oh and Ren" she said as a smile crossed Jaunes face.

"I swear a Oath and promise my soul to great Oum that so long as any breath remains in my body I will not allow any one of my team members to come to harm, suffer or be in pain if I can help it!" He declared standing up with her.

He began to say something else as the bush on the other side moved a little bit and Yang was over it in a heartbeat. She reached in and pulled out Zwei who barked and looked over his left back into the bush. Yang reached into the bush a second time pulling Ruby out who sat wide eyed at what she was hearing coming from her sister and friend. She looked at Zwei who had given up their hiding spot by moving to get comfortable.

Ruby just rubbed the back of her head awkwardly as Yang looked shocked at her with mixed fear and surprise that her sister was spying on them. She shook out her yellow mane of hair and pulled it over her shoulder, running her fingers through it as she quietly let out… "Don't tell dad…."

Jaune and Ruby made eye contact before they both burst into laughter at Yang's sudden request. It explained at least a few things to Ruby though, were her sister disappeared to some nights and why Jaune was some of those times also missing. As well as why they had been spending a bit more time together and more at ease then when they first met. Even 'Vomit boy' wasn't heard as much now that she thought about it. Ruby Smiled and hugged her sister before she whispered in her ear.

"You owe me the story and a pile full of cookies….." A mischievous smile dancing across her face as Yang just sighed knowing there was no way out of this one.

"Ok, but no blabbing to anyone else…. We don't want Jaune to be executed…" as both girls turned to look at Jaune who wasn't sure what to say. They stayed there for a few more minutes before all their scrolls buzzed and very annoyed teammates all demanding to know where they were. Weiss to Ruby and Yang about getting homework done…. Blake to Yang about reading and research….. Ren asking for help to contain Nora…. Nora demanding freedom or else… and Pyrrha too Jaune about training….. Jaune just groaned his head falling forward as he stood up. The three side and made their way out of the maze after a few minutes. Yang turned back to look at it and as she stared she saw the hedge seem to just close up and not be open. She was surprised to say the least and walked quickly away.

"Well then that was a thing, and Jaune don't worry about us things will be…. Just normal k." Yang said a bit of hesitation at the end that Jaune missed completely but Ruby who didn't could tell that this definitely would not be normal and began to plot on how to fix things for everyone.


	2. Questions

Questions

The sound of metal hitting metal echoed into the night as Jaune and Pyrrha sparred on the rooftop in their normal spot overlooking most of Beacon. They had been at it for an hour, Jaune was still confused as to why it felt like he was more a punching bag instead of a sparring partner.

 _He arrived right on time and upon seeing Pyrrha gave her a hug, his arms had barely wrapped around her before he noticed her face turned beet red and she stammered as her eyes glazed over for a moment. Before he knew it she suddenly drew her weapon and began to swing it wildly saying 'cold water' over and over as he barely blocked each swing_

Pyrrha thought back to yesterday when they were cuddling and couldn't get the image out of her head and upon Jaune hugging her she was reminded of his hands roaming and it caused her to lash out. She didn't exercise much self control as she did her best to hid her blushing face.

"Uh Pyrrha perh.." ***Whack*** Jaune lowered his shield for a moment to speak and was knocked to the ground. His shoulder armor was cracked by Milo, Pyrrha's weapon. Pyrrha finally began to calm down as she looked down at Jaune, embarrassed. She mumbled "I'm sorry" and extended a hand down to him, helping him up.

"What got into you Pyrrha?" Jaune asked feeling the bruise forming just to the left of his collar bone. He was surprised that she had lost her calm, collective nature as she normally never let anything under her skin or bother her. He cracked a smile though as he stood and dusted himself. _At least when she's going wild like that I have a chance to block all of those swings if I don't lose focus._ He quipped in his head with an amused expression on his face as he took up a defensive stance.

They settled into mock swordplay trading blows and dancing around each other before Jaune got sloppy and Pyrrha knocked him over. She giggled, extending a hand to him and helping him up once more. It repeated for 4 more hours, * **Clang clang clang*** 'Ooof' and giggles. With every defeat Jaune grew more determined; the spars slowly increased by a few seconds until they finally hit a full 5 minutes on their final spar of the night. He was so certain he would land a hit on her when she smiled at him and dropped her sword making him swing wildly in surprise to stop from hitting her.

She smiled as he fumbled, ducking under the swing she tackled him to the ground disarming him as she sat on his chest a silly smile plastered from ear to ear. He could only blush as she leaned down and pecked him on the lips before turning her head and brushing her hair behind her ear. The moon sat behind her in his view outlining her form and making her appear like a goddess to him. With a smile he just closed his eyes and leaned his head back.

"You're definitely improving Jaune, over the last 3 months you have been able to increasingly hold your own against me." She complimented as she sat there enjoying the closeness.

"Yeah well you know me, Don't know how to give up or surrender." He said as he gripped her waist and rolled them over pinning her to the ground. He chuckled at her surprised face before standing up pulling her with him.

"I have the best teacher after all anyways…" He spoke softly, hugging her as he let his gaze travel out over beacons grounds to the moon and Vale off in the distance. He could see the twinkling lights of all the cars and the blinking lights on the roofs of all the tall buildings for all the late night air traffic that was flying around.

He could just make out the general area that he hung out every other weekend, a club known as Raptorz. He sometimes thought to invite his friends to come with but then again it was his own sanctuary, mostly, his mind shifting over to what Yang had said earlier in the day. She was a cool person and he really liked spending time with her but he didn't know what to do about the situation.

In fact he was amazed he even made it as far as he did with Pyrrha. A nightmare was causing him to be more upfront about feelings while his brain was in overdrive trying to figure out if his new relationship was good or bad. Good that he finally acted without thinking on his feelings, bad that he is having a dream of his teammate dying….

"Pyrrha, I've always wondered, why did you come to Beacon if you were from Mistral. Isn't there an academy closer to home?" Jaune asked still gazing out at the scenery, Pyrrha rotated to join him keeping his arms wrapped around her as she took in the view as well. She had to ponder a moment, logically speaking all 4 academies were renowned but she had chosen to come here after all instead of staying closer to home.

"Well i am not sure really. I guess i was just tired of being in the spotlight every day not that coming here changed that much…" As she trailed off.

Jaune smiled as he tightened his hold

"Then again by coming here I met you so it's a win-win." She added after a thoughtful moment.

Jaune just sighed his face turning red. He still was surprised in all honesty that he was interesting to her. As he knew she could have anyone she wanted. He wasn't skilled in combat or particularly smart in most subjects. He rated himself as average for looks although his mom always said that the Arcs were among those who grew into good looking men no matter what.

His dad on the other hand would just laugh stating that it wasn't so much that they looked good but that the men in the family just in general attracted a lot of attention because of reasons that he was too young to know about…. ' _I should probably ask him about that some time..'_

Jaune thought to himself before he realized that Pyrrha was looking at him.

"So…?" She left that open ended, as she looked at him

"Sorry?" He was confused

"Is your family from Vale? I asked if that's why you chose Beacon as the school to join…." A cheeky smile gracing her face as he realized he had zoned out.

"Um my family… we don't actually live anywhere near Vale or this continent as a matter of fact." Jaune started as he looked around making sure no one else was listening.

He opened up his scroll and pulled up the world map of remnant. He pointed at the darker landmass in the north west part of the world with Vale in the center. He pointed at the green part of land at the bottom part of that continent. Most of the land as you went farther north turned black. He quickly closed his scroll and stored it back in his pocket.

"I live there." he spoke nervously giving her a pointed look to wait with any questions. She was surprised that he was suddenly so secretive about his home. But she nodded and made a mental note to ask about it once they were back in the dorms. It was kinda strange now that she thought about it. Jaune had never once talked about home itself, the most she knew about him was that he had a mom, dad and 7 sisters who he loved dearly.

"So what kind of things are in Mistral since I know so little about it?" Jaune asked interrupting her thoughts and switching the subject.

Pyrrha sighed with a smile as she gave him the rundown of the kingdom she hailed from. As she described it was a large city in the middle of a boxed canyon. A sea to the north and open plains to the west, mountains on the east and southern sides and the ocean itself surrounding the continent.

The Mistral coliseum is the center of the city with the Mistral Academy, Haven **,** surrounding it. The city spirals out from their with the northern part making up most of the residential areas with Sanctum itself north of that putting the two schools close to home and ensuring quick response from huntsmen and huntresses.

The east is the industrial and mining districts, ranging from the blacksmiths and to dust production as well as raw materials for other things like the the Tram system that was the main transportation in the city or construction in general. Everyone from Sanctum is required to spend 6 months with the blacksmiths to learn how to craft their own weapons and armor.

The south is mostly commercial productions and tourist areas. The airfield is located there as well as the Pumpkin Pete's cereal headquarters and other well known brands. Theres many shops as well as the other hospitalities that were geared toward children and adults respectively.

And then the west was farming land where the hunters headquarters were located. There was a large docking area along the coast that was also connected to the tram line. There wasn't much to say besides the regular grimm attacks were mostly in that area because of the natural defenses around the city itself as well as the man made defenses and regular huntsmen patrols that made it impossible to strike from anywhere else.

The Tram system had a cool setup. There were 3 rings that circled the city one around the Academy one in the middle of the city and one on the border of the city. Each one traveled in a full circle. There were tram lines that run from the outer rings into the inner ones above ground to prevent accidents and then there were two tram lines that ran underground from the industry and commercial districts all the way out to the docks.

Jaune's mind was reeling as he pictured all of this and how the setup was very effective in its own right. As he was listening he couldn't help but compare his home to hers and noted that Tram lines are definitely cool and useful to have. He was disappointed that Vale didn't seem to have any that he had seen thus far. His thoughts were interrupted as Pyrrha carried on after a short breath.

Sanctum itself resided up on the mountain side providing a home base for hunters who were on duty for the cliffsides, It was about half the size of Beacon, and had large hot springs that everyone took advantage of when they had off time. Pyrrha finished as a wistful expression crossed her face. She had to admit to herself that she did miss home especially the hot springs. They were her favorite part. She decided that she was taking Jaune there with her the next time she visited and smiled at the thought of them in a hot spring together.

Jaune smiled. "I'll have to travel there someday and see it for myself." Pyrrha nodded, anxious for the day when she and Jaune could go together.

"C'mon Jaune, let's head back to the dorms and get some rest, we have the duo battles in combat training tomorrow." Pyrrha said as she picked up her equipment and then grabbed Jaune's hand as he sheathed his sword and collapsed his shield. They headed back inside and down from the roof to the dorm area.

Arriving at the room they stopped for a moment, Jaune reaching for his scroll to unlock the door when it opened Ren looked at them before dragging a tied up Nora out of the room. He mumbled something about sugar and burning that energy off. Jaune and Pyrrha just nodded as they separated letting them pass.

Walking into the now empty dorm they sat down on their beds and took a minute to relax before pulling their armor off. It only took a few minutes before Pyrrha excused herself and headed to the bathroom. The sound of water running met Jaunes ears. He figured he probably had about 20 minutes before the approaching confrontation about his homeland and he sat trying to think what to say.

' _Hmm, well I'm sure she's gonna ask about it, it would be strange for her not too… I never talk about it and now it's out there. My family basically runs the kingdom and the defense against the Ancient grimm in that area, making sure that nothing escapes down into the southern kingdoms. Although because it's not known to anyone but the headmasters and council members we live as a secluded kingdom and don't typically interact with the outside world._

 _The primary reason behind this is that the fear of even larger, deadlier grimm could potentially attract them off the continent and to the smaller kingdoms that are used to the normal everyday grimm they deal with. So we the Arcs stand in the defence of Humanity in the north, it's a duty not a heroic deed. The statue in front of beacon is the only hint of our existence._

 _The secondary reason is for a long time the Arc family has been at war with the Grimm spawn as we dubbed it. We aren't sure if it's a human grimm hybrid or some evil manifestation of all the world's negativity but over the course of history we have come across what we believe is the being responsible for the grimm directly or indirectly. The creature resides in the North part of the continent and until it's defeated we will remain strong, and hold back as much of the dark tide as we can._

Jaune was broken out of his musing as the water stopped and a few minutes later Pyrrha came out of the bathroom in a towel. She stopped at her dresser and pulled a blue tanktop and black shorts out and sat down looking at him pointedly. Jaune was enraptured with her beauty however so it took a few minutes for him to register that she was waiting for him to take a shower so she could change.

He chuckled and got up walking into the bathroom and shut the door. Pyrrha could hear him whistling as running water met her ears. She dropped the towel to the floor and put on the clothes she pulled out. Once that was taken care of she snagged the towel up and laid it neatly on the drying rack. She moved over to her desk and, grabbing a brush, began to deal with her long red hair. It was a nightly ritual and one she didn't mind too much even if it did take about an hour to get it all nice and soft.

Jaune came out after 10 minutes of wonderful hot water bliss and scrubbing to find Pyrrha with her back to him sitting on his bed brushing her hair. He walked over and grabbed his onesie and started back towards the bathroom to change when he had a daring idea. He set the onsie on the bed and then sat down behind Pyrrha catching her hand with the brush.

"Here let me do it. I used to brush my sisters hairs all the time back home so it's something i'm used to…." He trailed off as she released the brush into his grasp. With a smile he set to work on her hair the red tinge on his face would have easily been noticeable if she turned around. Pyrrha on the other hand was in heaven as she felt Jaune's hands running through her hair working at a rapid speed and precision without causing her pain. He was done in 20 minutes, her hair nice and soft, but she didn't want him to stop.

She turned around and put her hand on his chest pushing him back as she climbed on top straddling him. She brushed the stray strands of hair behind her ear and leaned down giving him a kiss. They stayed like that for a few moments before she realized all he had on was a towel and her face went crimson as she quickly got up and turned around

"JAUNE GO GET DRESSED NOW!" Pyrrha yelled as Jaune scrambled into the bathroom, Yang's head popped in the door a minute later while Jaune was still in the bathroom. Pyrrha jumped at the sudden appearance of the blonde who had a coy look on her face as she looked around.

"Aww did I miss lady-killer in action again?" Yang teased as she stepped inside the room and plopped down on Jaune's bed looking around for the supposedly nude blonde her eyes locking on the bathroom door that whistlings could be heard coming from. Pyrrha suddenly realized that it was almost one in the morning.

"Why are you still up, Yang?" Pyrrha inquired while she too let her eyes drift to the bathroom door.

"Oh you know, the girls are at war with Nora who escaped and got into Ruby's cookies so i'm waiting for the aftermath because I took a bath already and don't want my hair to get dirty." She replied. As if on cue, the sound of explosions were heard and the dorm shook violently.

A loud crash was heard from the bathroom and then the sound of the beacon alarms went off as more explosions went off in the distance. Pink hearts and loud cracks of lightning as well as ice, fire and white explosions were seen along with shadows dancing and swirls of petals in the courtyard. Jaune came out in his onesie toothbrush still in his mouth as an explosion of fire lit up the courtyard. Ren was on the roof watching precariously as Nora and RWB fought.

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Nora exclaimed as she brought her hammer down on Blake who cloned away just in time. A crater left in the spot she was just at, Weiss and Ruby were combining their attacks trying to slow Nora down. The excitable redhead was on a sugar warpath and nothing could stand in her way.

"You will pay for my cookies' demise, you fiend!" Ruby exclaimed as she fired off several rounds before flipping her scythe around and firing her last one in the cartridge propelling her forward, spinning her scythe at Nora. Nora got ready with her hammer as Blake lassoed it with her rippon and pulled back while Weiss formed ice on Nora's hands.

Ruby came around and tried to yank Nora down with her as she went by. Blake pulled at the same time while Weiss lunged forward with green dust. Nora fired a round into the air yanking Blake forward and bringing her hammer down on Weiss who jumped back at the last second narrowly avoiding being crushed. With a kick, Blake was sent flying backwards as Ruby dashed and caught her.

At that moment Ms. Goodwitch came out in her pajamas and barked at them as all three were mid-jump. They froze in midair.

"CHILDREN! ITS WAY PAST YOUR BEDTIME! You will get inside now and return to your dorms!" They quickly shuffled by Goodwitch back inside as all the damage done was quickly repaired by her.

"Sometimes I swear i'm only here to clean up messes." Gynda huffed as she returned back inside.

After a few minutes the sound of the warring girls and Ren could be heard as the doors to both rooms opened up. Ruby noticed Yang was not in the room. She turned around and spotted her sister.

"Hey! You didn't defend my cookies' honor!" She exclaimed as Nora gave the cheesiest grin ever and Yang rolled her eyes.

"Aww come on, Ruby. I believed in you and all that!" Yang said cheerfully as she got up and hugged her sister. Ren walked over to Jaune and whispered 'they were good now' before climbing into his bed and waited for the impending Nora. Without even looking he moved to his right as she landed next to him in his bed. He could only smile as she reached up and poked his nose.

"Boop."

Jaune smiled while Pyrrha, Weiss and Blake chitchatted about the battle. Apparently the sugar that Ren spoke of was a box of cookies he discovered when he came in to see Nora rearranging the dorm. She had snuck over into Team RWBY's room while he was in the shower and nicked them from Ruby's nightstand while the girls were showering in the locker room 2 hours ago leaving their room completely defenseless.

The orange haired girl devoured the cookies and and went into a sugar frenzy when Ren returned. He struggled to contain the now super hyper Nora. He gave a pointed look at Jaune who remembered the message on his scroll asking for help which arrived when Jaune was in the shower and then he didn't bother to check his scroll afterwards. Ren passed Yang, who had been in the shower longer than her teammates paying extra attention to her hair, on the way outside and told her about what happened.

"Sorry Ren." Jaune said as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Ren shot him a dirty look and then sighed. Bygones are bygones.

Ren managed to get her outside by one of the training grounds to burn of the energy but was interrupted by Ruby who came down with her scythe, murder in her eyes, as she went after Nora in vengeance for the missing cookies.

Yang just laughed as they recounted the series of events that led to the battle as it was partly her fault for telling Ruby who went for her midnight snack and found the box gone. She had ravaged the room searching for them and threatening Weiss and Blake for possibly hiding/eating them. It was only after 15 minutes of tearing the room apart that Yang mentioned Nora and the rest was history. Ruby went off after her followed by Weiss and Blake to make sure their leader was okay.

Yang, not wanting to ruin her hair, flopped down on her bed pulling out the book Blake had lent her (the one she's always reading) and flipping through it until she got to where she had left off and began to read. Her peaceful relaxation was interrupted by Pyrrha's yelling and she bolted into JNPR's room. In the meantime, Ruby finally tracked down Nora via cookie crumbs and pink explosions and thus the battle ensued.

Ren and Yang tossed words, filling in the story as Blake just looked at Yang with a deadpanned expression and Nora looked sheepishly away as Ruby eyed her up and down.

Jaune just sighed as he pulled out a emergency box of cookies for this exact situation and was tackled by Ruby who pried the box from his hand and chowed down while sitting on him.

"Mmmmm cookies….." she said, a star glint in her eye, as she looked over her shoulder at the rest of the people in the room daring any of them to approach. No one wanted to know what would happen should they move so they left her there. Blake and Weiss headed back to their room to wait out the scythe wielder's rapid devourment of the confections. Yang just laughed plopping back down on Jaune's bed joining Pyrrha who was watching Jaune as he laid there resigned to his fate while Ren attempted to read.

Nora had fallen asleep however and was rolling back and forth slowly pushing him off of his own bed much to his dismay. It took another 10 minutes before Ruby was back to normal, mostly because she fell asleep and Jaune just didn't care anymore. He just laid there enjoying the soft carpeted floor deciding that it was about as great as a bed anyways. Suddenly he had an idea, an evil smirk appearing upon his face as he continuously moved his arm back and forth on the carpet.

Yang who had no idea what he was up to went to pick up Ruby. She jumped back as an electrical spark zapped her. Jaune chuckled at the little prank. Yang grinned and moved Ruby off of him and then lightly punched him in the gut. Jaune felt his diaphragm collapse as he desperately sucked in air.

"Good one." She said smiling and helped him up albeit he was still a bit winded from the blow. Pyrrha just shook her head before pulling Jaune down next to her. He just smiled and she leaned over putting her head on his shoulder while Yang watched, her smile falling a bit as she picked Ruby up.

"Have a good night you two." She said as she swaggered back to her room Ruby in tow. "Try not to make her scream too loud Lover-Boy" Yang teased before shutting the door behind her. Jaune sighed as he leaned back, pulling Pyrrha with him. She moved to rest her head on his chest while he rubbed the top of her head. She was happy as she snuggled up to him and he tossed the blankets over them. Ren the lights dimmed down with a clap and JNPR let dreamland wash over them.

 _Pyrrha was having a weird dream, she was standing on a wall that went in both directions farther than the eye could see. Behind her was a vast city bustling with people and faunus alike. In front of her open fields with some pockmarks of trees and shrubs. Beyond that the color seemed to drain away turning a sickly green and eventually blackish white. Beside her stood Jaune and two other figures that were hazy as she tried to focus on them one with yellowish features the other with blackish. She shook her head as her attention was brought back to the open area that was now crawling with grimm._

"So it's gonna be like this huh?" Jaune said as he stepped onto the wall edge and walked off. Pyrrha reached out to grab him but he plummeted down just out of her grasp as she cried out his name.

She woke up, her arms wrapped around him tightly clinging to him to make sure he didn't go anywhere. She realized there was a pinkish glow as her red aura and his white aura were both active, mixing together as they met. She had never seen this phenomenon before. The pinkish glow began to fade out as Jaune mumbled in his sleep about not wearing a dress for his sister's birthday. She smiled and kissed him on the forehead before snuggling back into his arms and sleeping once more.

The next morning classes, as usual, were boring and hard to follow from both Professor Oobleck (forgive me, Doctor Oobleck) who spoke a mile a minute and Professor Port who droned on about something or another involving himself as a wee lad. Most people could feel their souls leaving their bodies from boredom. Record and slow down or record and speed up, that was the general game plan for both team RWBY and JNPR as each day they would alternate recording the classes so they could all study together and rewatch it in more understandable pace.

Nothing particular happened for the rest of the day until they reached combat training with Ms. Goodwitch who seemed to already be in a bad mood as the 3rd years were filing out of her class. She was repairing the majority of the classroom as the 1st years walked in. One glance was all that needed to be said. If the classroom was destroyed by them (it probably would be) they were not going to make it out of the room unscathed.

Pyrrha and Jaune looked at each other and nervously smiled. As everyone sat down the two-man spars began. The selection was randomized, pitting two people from two teams against each other . The first pair called was Sean Kinns the only boy on Team Sapphire ( **SPHR)** and Jamie Harvest one of the three girls.

Sean stood around 6 feet tall with midnight blue hair that came down to the middle of his back, he wore green combat boots and black pants an emerald vest with a black undershirt with grey bandoliers along both legs with the extra ammo he eyes were gray as clouds and reflected light in a eerie way. His weapon of choice was two warglaives with pistols built into the handles. They took on a green glow as he gripped them and he grinned, stepping up.

Jamie on the other hand had pixie cut short purple hair with blue and red tips. She sported a thigh length light blue dress with bronze shoulder pads and wore black knee high combat boots with armor plates at the top and purple ribbons around the middle. She had a Bazooka-like weapon that she hefted up onto her shoulder armed with several different blue dust tubes. They smiled at each other confident they would attain victory. Their opponents were Yang and Ruby, who were both excited to be the first match.

Ruby pulled out her scythe, deployed it and held it at the ready while Yang fumbled with a small box on her side holding it closed. Ms. Goodwitch approached Yang and asked about it. Yang simply stated 'it was a secret weapon'. Shaking her head, she said she would allow it but reminded her to not try anything funny that would jeopardize the state of the classroom to which Yang just smiled. She turned and looked at her teammates and JNPR. She smiled, slyly winking.

As the timer counted down from three, she lifted the box up ready to throw it. Sean and Jamie braced for the impact of the box, watching nervously as Yang laughed and opened the box revealing a double stuffed chocolate chip and peanut butter cookie. They stared blankly at Yang as she lobbed it at Jamie while the class laughed. Ruby on the other hand launched herself via sniper round propulsion right into Jamie who wasn't expecting the small girl. The cookie in hand, she sat on the dazed girl who was barreled over by Ruby.

Yang smirked as she punched Sean who was trying to make sense of what just happened. The fight was over in just a measly 15 seconds. He crumpled from the two blows she hit him with before walking over to Jaime who was coming out of her daze and threw in the towel. Everyone looked on, jaws dropped, as Ruby jumped up cookie gone and said she was ready for the fight before looking down confused.

Even Glynda who had seen some a lot of tricks in the past couldn't help but stare surprised at what the blonde had just done. She regained her composure after a minute and declared them the winners. Yang smirked as she walked back to her seat. Blake facepalmed and Weiss scolded Ruby for losing focus, Yang had gotten the idea of using the cookie from last night when Ruby attacked Jaune.

Pyrrha who was able to keep up with watching the entire fight was looking at Ruby with a new found fear should she ever be on the receiving end of a cookie attack. Everyone else just sat with blank faces and open jaws. About 5 minutes later the next pair was called to spar. Nora Valkyrie and Jaune Arc versus Cardin and Sky. The fight went pretty much as one would expect as Nora launched herself at both boys and ended it in one go. Jaune stood there thankful that she didn't break either boys' legs but from the swollen faces she clearly had no intention of holding back against anyone from CRDL at all.

To Cardin's credit he blocked the first swing but missed the second rotation as Nora spun around bringing her hammer into him with a boost from firing it. Up next was Blake and Weiss against Sandual and Cuddles from Team Crystal ( **CSTL)** everyone snickered. What kind of parents would call their child Cuddles to begin with…..

Sandual sported throwing needles and a long, hefty blow gun. He wore a green and purple trenchcoat with a hood up and drawn and 10 bandoliers all with small, bite size crystals of red, yellow, blue and green. He smiled as he stepped forward. Cuddles on the other hand was a big guy with big arms wearing full plated armor the encased his entire body, on his gauntlets wicked sharp spikes protruded all around them. His armor on closer look also was serrated and had blades all facing outward giving the appearance of a armordillo as a person.

Despite his intimidating size, he had a big smile on his face, his thick whiskers twitching and said 'good luck' to the girls as the countdown started. On zero Cuddles jumped up as Sandual threw three needle at Weiss who dodged to the left while Blake fired her gun, darting to the right. Cuddles landed with a thud as his fist hit the ground leaving a spike behind as he moved forward, arms pumping as he charged Weiss not letting up. She leapt backwards as his hands grasped for her before he punched the ground as she glyphed into the air leaving behind another spike.

Sandual threw five more needles, one grazing Blake's shoulder as she cloned away from the other four, grabbing a yellow crystal he stuffed it into his mouth before putting the tube to his lips and blowing. A lightning bolt came out missing Blake by inches as it crashed into the far wall. People were stunned as he grabbed a red and a blue crystal putting both of them into his mouth and releasing a gout of fire with ice trailing behind it forming small pillars and making the floor slippery.

Weiss glyphed to the ceiling as Blake joined her. The boys looked up and smiled. Cuddles gave a small wave as he stabbed three more spikes into the ground around him. He put his foot on one and they all glowed a bright orange as they now formed a circle and filled with light as the ceiling and everything else in the light was disintegrated. Weiss and Blake 'sweat dropped' as the both landed back on the ground if they hadn't dodged they would have turned to dust. Blake's aura hit red forcing her to bow out and Weiss who after a quick glance saw that only Sandaul had been dropped down a little bit from Blake's bullets surrendered.

The boys high fived before they felt an icy stare and turned around to see Glynda Goodwitch tapping her riding crop in her hand and looking up at the destroyed ceiling. They got on their hands and knees begging for forgiveness as she sighed and began to repair what she could since a large chunk of the ceiling had been obliterated.

"Control boys, You have a lot of power but it doesn't do you any good if you just keep blowing everything up like Nora and Yang…." She trailed off as both girls turned red and a light bbti of laughter rose up from the rest of the students who tried very hard to make light of the destroyed room. Glynda sighed as she looked at them all and then raised her riding crop to try and fix the damage.

With that the rest of class ended and everyone quickly made it out before Glynda got her hands on them. Jaune and Pyrrha smiled at each other as they headed back to the dorms to relax for a hour before dinner. Nora and Ren went off to make pancakes while team RWBY went to the library to play their board game. It was a quiet evening at least until after dinner….

* * *

Author Note

Sorry for the delay, I had a really hard time finding someone to peer review and edit so that it was grammatically acceptable to society :D, well mostly just some edits so that it flowed well. I will have the other chapters up once my special second eyes finishes up with chapter 3 and 4. again sorry for the wait ~~ hope you enjoy. read and review k thx buhbye!


	3. First Contact

**First Contact**

Previously: _With that the rest of class ended and everyone quickly made it out before Glynda got her hands on them. Jaune and Pyrrha smiled at each other as they headed back to the dorms to relax for a hour before dinner. Nora and Ren went off to make pancakes while team RWBY went to the library to play their board game. It was a quiet evening at least until after dinner…._

 **1 hour before dinner**

Jaune and Pyrrha arrived back in the dorms to snuggle up for an hour before dinner was ready. They slinked into the room and climbed into Jaune's bed. They cuddled up next to each other and shared small talk about the coming festival and what kind of system will be used for the tournament. Pyrrha was adamant that Jaune would fight alongside her even though he felt Nora would be the better choice.

She shuffled in his arms until she was facing him and kissed him hard reassuring him that he was the best partner she had ever had. He smiled as they broke apart and rested his forehead against hers as they fell into a light nap. They laid there for a good 45 minutes until Jaune's scroll alarm alerted them that they had 15 minutes until dinner.

It had been a long day and Team Sapphire was exhausted from their training regiment. After Team Crystal destroyed the combat room and ended class early, they decided to spar with each other for the remainder of the class time. Sean had just unlocked his semblance recently and was able to gain a basic control of it through two weeks of practice.

His semblance allowed him to make himself lighter and somewhat solidify air around his feet and hands to kick off and move through the air. He couldn't persay fly but hoped to be able to one day. Currently he was able to at least launch himself around at inhuman speeds with his warglaives Purgatory (Left) and Elysium (Right). He was also getting better at releasing smaller amounts of aura to not tire himself after 5 minutes of using his semblance. Sean redesigned his pistols to hold larger calibers of dust rounds so he now had 20 shots instead of 40 but they were far stronger and meant instead of 2-4 shots to slay a grimm he could do it with one well placed shot.

He also tweaked his Warglaives to close up from their regular half circle form to more of a oval when he fired allowing him to use them like battleaxes so he could literally hack and slash as he fought. As they wrapped up the training they had about a hour left before dinner so he decided to wash up and watch his favorite show, a sci-fi story about a man who was fighting against an alien race all by himself alongside his trusty A.I. companion.

Across from him sat Xarik Passive the second member of team SPHR she wore blue overalls, thigh-high socks, navy blue boots, and a dark blue crop top under the overalls. Black fingerless dust gloves that had blue dust crystal holders and refilled the dust container in the handle grip of the her stringless dust built bow and lastly her black oval shaped glasses that she pushed up as she looked at her other two teammates and best friends.

Her teammate Sabrina Ravage wore an aqua blue V-necked shirt that disappeared behind a blue half dress that ran from her right shoulder down to her waist, a long flowing sleeve that ended at her wrist. Three leather buckles connected the front of the dress running over her chest and over and around her left shoulder to the back of the dress, Turquoise leggings flowed down into combat boots that started just below her knees and buckles ran along the side of each boot with clasps attached. Around her waist was a small black pouch attached to a belt and

She sighed as she listened to Sabrina the fourth member and Jamie who was the third bicker back and forth on who had the better ice techniques and which was stronger. It went on for a good few minutes before Sean got up and left. She sat and ran a finger over her bow as she looked at the targets in the training area.

Putting her gloves back on, she aimed her bow at the targets and drew the bow back. A blue line formed and a watery arrow generated from her fingers. She lined up with her target and fired. The arrow sped into the target piercing it. She fired a second one holding the energy a moment longer letting the arrow grow into a long bolt of water that traveled about as fast as the shorter one.

She looked up as she felt she was being watched and saw both Jamie and Sabrina eyeing her with silly grins. They both drew their weapons and looked at her expectantly. She sighed again pushing her glasses back up her nose and smiled standing up as she took aim at a few more targets.

On their way down to the cafeteria Ren and Nora had swung by the library to drop off some books and passed team RWBY on their way out, Nora decided to swing by the armory to clean and repair her hammer. She sat at the table by herself getting a rag and cleaning dust to get Magnhild in tip top shape. She was engaged in her work for a good half hour not paying any mind to anyone that entered or left while she measured pink dust, refilled the cannon and made grenade rounds.

Ren pulled a book from his shirt and began to read as he walked down to the cafeteria alone. He smiled as he got into the book itself and upon arrival, sat down at the table and looked around noting that the few people in the cafeteria had about the same idea as him, silent reading and that was the way he liked it.

 **45 minutes before dinner**

The library was a roar of laughter as team RWBY sat playing their board game, Remnant The Game, together. Yang was currently winning and directing Weiss on how to play only to counter her strategies. Blake rolled her eyes, waiting for her turn, one foot on the side of the table, propping the chair she was on two legs while she was reading her book.

A small smile graced her lips as she got to a good part in her book. Ruby proclaimed total capture of part of Yang's kingdom. Yang whined as she looked over at Blake helplessly. The girl in question was grinning and when it was her turn she leaned forward playing 3 cards and moved her fleet over to bombard Ruby for the next two turns. Putting a trap card down for any countermeasures, she smiled sweetly and reminded them that she wanted tuna for dinner.

Sun and Neptune appeared, explaining that they were officially residing at Beacon for the Vytal Festival. Sun smiled at Blake who returned the gesture as they caught up and chatted a bit. She thought of Sun of at least a good friend since he stood up with her against the White Fang.

Sabrina and Jamie were exhausted having turned most of the combat arena into a ice skating rink. Jaime was able to direct and freeze water that was in close proximity to her instantly. Her ability worked in tandem flawlessly with Xarik's own semblance, freezing her water arrows after they impacted into Grimm or making ice walls. She was working on her defence using her frying pan to block water and ice respectively. She enjoyed herself as she danced around batting each attack away. They went at it for 10 minutes straight before they called it quits and headed inside. Sabrina making her way to the armory to knock a dent out of her weapon caused by the massive bolt of ice that Xarik and Jamie made, although to her credit she did stop it.

Team CSTL was confused by two things: one was to why Cardin and his team had requested a team battle against them and two was why said arena was frozen over in the middle of the May. They moved to the arena next to it that was much smaller and used to fight training droids. The outside arena was surveyed by cameras and an automated system operated by an A.I. teacher called Zefiris who ran maintenance and dealt with all electronic system on his own closed circuit.

As both teams got ready Cardin came forward to address the other all boy team.

"Look freaks, it's time we put you in your place, We humans are better then you faunus and any human who sympathizes with a faunus is even worse, so we challenge you to show you our strength." Cardin said as he got ready to fight, staring down Thrawn, the only Human on the team, who met him with an impassive face.

The rest of Team CRDL was looking warily at Team CSTL. They saw both Sandual and Cuddles in action earlier and knew they were deadly. They had no idea what Thrawn and Leroy could do and were honestly kind of tired of being beat up by other teams and treated like trash for picking on the Faunus that didn't fight back.

Sky, Dove and Russel all agreed before coming down that when this was all over and they got thrashed they were going to have a team meeting with Cardin about his hatred for Faunus because it was going way overboard. Even after he was saved by Jaune his attitude didn't really change. It was important they be unified as a team as well as have allies among the other teams if they hoped to survive Beacon. At least Sky recognized this and Dove was on his side.

As the gong sounded Cardin took a step back as Sky and Dove stood together in front, holding their weapons at the ready. Russel got ready to dart to the right as he suddenly had a very bad feeling.

His premonition was confirmed when Thrawn put a hand on Cuddles shoulder and patted it. The mountainous teen took a step forward, blocking the rest of his team from view. Cardin grew angry and ordered his teammates to charge. As they started to move toward Cuddles, he jumped into the air, fist aimed at them, the area lit up with a reddish orange glow. A gout of flame washed over them and burned them. They scattered as Cuddles landed between Sky and Dove. Russel, being the only one untouched by flames, slipped around and tried to get behind his teammates as he heard a loud noise and electricity hit Cardin in the chest.

Cardin took a swing at Cuddles who raised a gauntlet into the swing and shifted it to slide down his arm as he grabbed a hold of Cardin and bearhugged him. Everyone winced as they watched Cardin's Aura flicker as the serrated edges of Cuddles armor cut into Cardin's flesh and after a minute some blood began seeping through his armor as Cardin's aura faltered. He crumpled to the ground with a thud. Cuddles turned and looked at Dove and Sky who both immediately dropped their weapons.

Russel went for the cheap shot coming up behind Thrawn and took a swing that suddenly met resistance as Leroy stood before him, a tower shield in one hand and a double bladed sword in the other. He was surprised as he hadn't noticed the boy until just now, noting his skin was an opaque black and scale, something that you wouldn't notice without being this close.

Thrawn stepped forward and pulled out some bandages and gauze. He moved toward Cardin. Kneeling down, he wrapped the cuts up and made quick perfect work covering all the wounds. Cardin was still out as Thrawn stood up and looked at the other three as Leroy herded Russel back to his teammates.

"Look, we don't know what your beef with Faunus is but we won't tolerate the harassment we see you display anymore. If you don't change your attitudes here and now, the next time we face each other there won't be mercy. Hopefully we can all be friends after this, after all we are classmates…" Thrawn trailed off, his eyes glinting a bright red for a moment before settling back to their grey color.

Leroy smiled as his sword shrunk back down. He reattached it to his armor. His shield hung on his back like a cloak waving in the wind as if it hadn't been solid the entire time. Russel stared at it puzzled. He could of sworn the shield had been metal when his swing was interrupted.

Dove nodded and apologized on behalf of their leader as the boys picked him up and carried him away back to the dorms before dinner. They all agreed that the bullying days for them were over because they were pretty sure that the warning from the giant were indeed a veiled but valid threat.

After the three boys and their leader were out of sight, Thrawn turned to his team and smiled. Cuddles had a sheepish look on his face as he apologized for drawing blood. Thrawn waved him off assuring the poor faunus boy that he didn't do to much damage just some cuts and bruises that were tended too.

"Leroy, keep an eye on them and if they start to do anything call Sandual to intervene, I know that he can handle the four of them without issue." Thrawn stated as he turned back to the ice field and looked at it curiously.

"Any idea who might've caused this?" He inquired outloud as the boys shrugged.

"At any rate we need to strengthen our aura's so we can do prolonged combat, which reminds me….." He stepped toward over to the terminal and accessed the recording of their small battle.

"3 minutes 47 seconds, not bad not bad at all." He remarked impressed the feat. "We have a good shot at winning the Vytal festival or at least making a good climb. Too bad we don't know how they will do the system yet….." He mused as Cuddles stomach rumbled.

"I'm hungry…." Cuddles laughed with a smile as Sandual rolled his eyes. Leroy snicked and Thrawn sighed before smiling and signaled it was time to go. The boys made their way back to the locker room to change into their school attire and head down for dinner.

 **30 minutes before dinner**

Ren got up from the table and made his way into the kitchen having enjoyed the short amount of rare Nora-less free time. He hummed a light tune as he started mixing a large quantity of pancake batter. He greeted the cooks as they were well aware of his use of the kitchen to stave off a crazed pancake hungry Nora so no one complained when he began making his usual large bowl of batter.

Sabrina arrived into the armory and grabbed a hammer and some other tools, she unloaded the dust cartridges out of the handle and base of the frying pan before she began to pound the metal back into place. Her aura had faltered during the last attack causing her weapon to lose its reinforced durability her aura provided.

She was slightly miffed but was also glad to know her limits so she knew what to work on to improve. It took about 5 minutes of constant hammer slams to get the metal back into place as she heated up the forge to do the final touches for perfection. She smiled as the metal grew hot and then with precise swings put it back in its original shape.

Smiling at her work she let it cool down before reloading it and heading to the bathroom to clean up the grime that had gotten on her. She hoped it would come off quickly as dinner was soon and she was hungry.

Nora moved from behind her workspace hanging her hammer up on the wall to sit since she didn't want to carry it back to her locker at the moment. She looked around and saw no one else was in the room although the forge was still lit but cooling so someone had come and gone without her noticing. She skipped her way out when she noted the frying pan sitting on a table by itself looking inconspicuous and out of place.

Without a second thought Nora grabbed it thinking that Ren could use a new frying pan to cook pancakes with. She hummed happily as she hurried down toward the kitchen to show Ren the frying pan. About 5 minutes later Sabrina returned from the bathroom and upon returning to the table, freaked out flipping the table on its side as she searched the entire room for her missing weapon.

Jaune and Pyrrha were both in dreamland as they were snuggled up to each other, their bodies meshed together, as they snoozed. The room began to take on a white glow before part of it became red and then the room glowed pink. The pair snoozed peacefully as their dreams unfolded into an interesting story.

 _Pyrrha stood quietly by a window looking out into the winter air. Snow was falling slowly to the ground, coating it in a fresh layer of white. The door behind her opened and closed. She saw the reflection of a yellowish figure cloaked by haze approaching her. She turned and forced a smile to her face as it stopped a few inches from her. The unnerving silence beared bad news as words seemed to fail Pyrrha._

" _They want to call off the search, everyone is saying he is dead. I know my instincts say otherwise but I don't even know where to start looking." The haze said solemnly as it moved next to her and appeared to look outside quietly letting the news sink in._

" _Then we will go find him ourselves….. I know he's out there somewhere, there is no way he could have just died…." Pyrrha said forcing the words out to convince the yellowish figure as well as herself. She knew that logically the chances were slim to nonexistent but the fact remained she felt with all her being that he was alive. As the two made their way to the door Pyrrha turned to look at the wall on the far side were a sword sat, untouched and unused in months, the painfully familiar Arc crest sitting on the hilt. She felt a tear slide down her face as she walked out of the room as everything went black and dreamland turned to a fuzzy gray….._

 _Jaune looked at himself in the mirror, the dance was coming up and he had no idea what to wear let alone how to present himself. His mind filled with unease at the prospect of going tonight and having to deal with his sisters. They always, whenever any girl was involved, found a way to make it so that said girl was sent running for the hills._

 _He knew that to them it was just a game to weed out the weak for their dear, lovable, silly, foolish and only brother but at the same time, it made it a pain to be friends with anyone but boys, who typically caused him as much of a headache because all they wanted was an in to get closer to his sisters, there was a lose-lose for Jaune._

" _C'mon Jaune, you have to do this otherwise they will never forgive you." He said trying to psych himself up even as the sensation of soul crushing regret filled him. It was almost certain that one way or the other, this night was going to go most likely go badly and with it probably all of his happiness. Crossing his fingers he hoped that everything would work out….._

 **15 minutes before dinner**

Nora arrived in the dining hall and didn't see Ren therefore she assumed he would be in the kitchen. Her hunch was correct and she found him there mixing a large bowl full of pancake mix. She presented the frying pan to Ren who eyed it for a moment.

"Nora where did you get this?" He asked curiously as he looked it over noting that it looked nothing like the other frying pans in the kitchen.

"Found it in the armory, so i thought we could use it to cook with today. It's prettier than the other frying pans after all." She pointed at the colored designs on it.

Ren sighed as he looked at her before he turned the stove top on and put the pan on it tossing a small bit of butter on the pan and waited for the butter to melt….

Jaune and Pyrrha woke up from their slumber to the buzz of Jaune's scroll, which hastily found itself under a pillow. Pyrrha giggled as she sleepily watched Jaune. Her own scroll went off as well. She gently nudged him off the side of the bed causing him to crash onto the floor and groan about getting up and eating later. She smiled sweetly as she pulled him to his feet and they began their descent down to the dining hall for dinner leaving their room in a hurry.

As Jaune turned the corner to the staircase he ran into a girl knocking both over. He fell on top of her, his face inches from hers, as he looked down at the person he ran over. Amber eyes met his blue ones, a cold feeling running through his very being as he looked down at the very familiar face. The girl from his nightmare was looking at him. He immediately stood up and offered her a shaky hand to help her up, quickly trying to come up with a plan.

She took his hand while her two teammates berated him about being more careful and Pyrrha stood there for a moment somewhat amused and annoyed that he was so close to another girl. The girl silenced them with a hand and said it wasn't that big of a deal as she eyed him up and down.

"I'm Jaune, uh sorry about that." He said sheepishly trying to maintain his cool.

"Cinder…" She trailed off her eyes lingering on him for a moment as they shook hands. A strange sensation washed over her as her mind seemed to blank out for a moment. When Jaune let go of her hand, Cinder's mind returned to its usual calculative self and she felt oddly refreshed.

She noted the redhead as Pyrrha Nikos, the Spartan girl, who was a renowned warrior from Minstral. She sized them both up deeming them not an immediate threat as she played her role as a lost student.

"We seemed to be lost trying to find the dining hall…." She said, forcing a sweet smile on her face that made her cringe on the inside.

"Um... we are heading that way if you... uh... want to follow us…." Jaune said, doing everything in his power to stay calm. His brain was racing, trying to decide on the best course of action. He finally came to the only conclusion he could, learn all he could to prevent what was to come without tipping off the woman that he knew who she was.

Jaune remembered he had seen her from a distance during the arrival of the students from other kingdoms. He had felt the same cold feeling but figured it was because of the late evening air and not his gut warning him of impending doom.

"Mmm, of course that would be wise…." She said her eyes flicking between Jaune and Pyrrha who had moved closer to the blonde wrapping an arm around his. She nodded and followed them back down the way they came to the dining hall.

Cinder made a note of the closeness between the two, a small devious side plan forming in her head. _The blonde was connected to the redhead and she was a potential target in her own right, so perhaps if we get to the blonde we can deal with her with minimal effort. His hand felt strange when he touched me, warmer than mine how peculiar. Why?_ She felt a little uneasy as she, Emerald, and Mercury followed the lovers to the dining hall.

Cinder and her two companions moved to an empty table along the side wall, letting her observe the room as a whole while she ate her meal. Her eyes drifted over to Jaune again and again a conflicting feeling of curiosity as well as something else she couldn't identify flitted through her mind for a moment whenever she looked at him.

A commotion coming from her right drew her attention as a girl with aqua colored hair that reached down to the middle of her back, stormed into the dining hall freaking out about her weapon being missing. She made her way over to a group of people who all seemed to really like the color blue based on their attire. Her voice carried as she became more and more upset and got worked up over it. She had apparently had it with her in the armory an hour ago tuning it up and had walked away to the bathroom. When she came back it was gone…...

 **Ozpin's office 5 minute before dinner**

The headmaster sat looking out over his school, a sad smile on his face. It had been quite a start to the year for him with the famed Pyrrha Nikos deciding out of the blue to apply here instead of at Minstral's Academy, Haven, it caused quite a stir with the media as well as Minstral's Headmaster for the better part of the summer since he was losing out on his prized student. Ozpin sighed, but it wasn't nearly as bad as when he received the formal request from Schnee Industries heiress Weiss Schnee to come to Beacon as well instead of Atlas Academy.

James Ironwood as well as Mr. Schnee both had curt words for him pressuring him to deny her entrance so that she remained at Atlas. That left things even more strained as rumors began that he and Vale were stealing the talent to gain more power. Especially with Vale hosting the Vytal festival this year at Beacon it seemed to be even more of a slap in the face to the other kingdoms.

Then there was the criticism of his allowance of Faunus to attend Beacon with the increasing threat of the White Fang. Even a few of his teachers gave him looks of disapproval when they were discussing Blake Belladonna attendance, having been a known White Fang member up until recently. Ozpin defended his decision by stating 'anyone was welcome if they were willing to commit for the better of humanity not against it.'

Then of course there was Jaune Arc who caused all the teachers to shudder. Arcs were not well known to the general society but all the Beacon staff knew the family well. The females were all gifted Huntresses, the men renowned Hunters, the family as a whole considered to be the apocalypse in disguise.

Although it came with a growing concern that the only boy in the the family didn't seem to have any formal training like the rest of his family as well as the fact that he didn't have his aura unlocked before arrival. Ozpin was not ready to deal with the what ifs as he was certain to hear sooner or later from the Matriarch of the clan as well as the King concerning why Jaune had fake transcripts. Ozpin had recognized the false documents right away since it wasn't the first time and certainly wouldn't be the last time prospective students tried to enter Beacon illegally.

No matter how he looked at the situation it didn't sit well with him at all. The entire matter overall came down to two conclusions: one, Jaune ran away from home and managed to get ahold of fake transcripts and that meant Heaven Arc didn't want her son to know combat let alone become a huntsmen. Two, something happened to Jaune while he was younger or something caused Xavier Arc to not unlock his only sons aura himself which was even more alarming since that would imply something more was happening and he, Ozpin, wasn't at liberty to know the reason behind that. It bothered him a great deal that this was well-kept secret. He concluded he better contact at least someone, and soon, but whom was the question…

As he dwelled on that he continued down his list noting the Avery brothers of team Castle were all here this year, Cuddles, Sandual, Thrawn and Leroy. They came from a well known family from Vacuo. The Avery Family was known for extremely unique Semblances as well as the fact most of the family was Faunus with a few mixed breeds, half-human/half-Faunus individuals. That came with its headache as the Headmaster from Shade came personally to inform him that he was not amused with Ozpin.

" _I don't care what you say Ozpin, it looks like you're collecting all the best and brightest to showcase that your the best school in Remnant."_

" _Kendal, please understand I am only here to run this academy, to protect humanity from the grimm and those who threaten it. I did not reach out to anyone outside of Vale. Those whom applied to come here from the other kingdoms did so on their own volition. I will not turn away anyone who desires to learn and improve." Ozpin stated sipping from his mug._

" _Regardless Ozpin, you must understand the political standpoint at the very least. If all of the top students chose to come here over their home academies it makes us appear second rate." Kendal said frustrated as he sat down, taking the offered coffee that was sitting in front of him. "I know it is the family's decision, but you could of at least inquired why they chose here instead of my academy. " He continued his words bitter._

" _Oh on the contrary Kendal, it's the students decision on where they choose to attend and I did inquire as to why they chose here as it is far from home, would you like to see the answers?" Ozpin offered pulling out a folder and handing it across his desk to the other headmaster._

 _Taking the folder Kendal opened it and read through each of their reasonings and felt his jaw slacken, disbelief evident on his face._

" _They wish improve the faunus-human relationship here for their families agenda, as well learn about Remnant's history and meet the famous model Glynda Goodwitch…." Ozpin coughed, his cheeks a tinge red. She was a popular focus of the magazine Huntresses Weekly._

" _Fine… that is well very informed, I suppose," Kendal added under his breath. "Speaking of which where is Glynda anyways? I haven't seen her around today. I was hoping she could... um... sign this?" As he pulled out an issue of the magazine._

 _Ozpin just chuckled and wished his friend luck with that before ending the meeting._

He sighed as he scrolled through down through more names cruising over Team Sapphire from Signal. They all graduated together and were noted to have a very strong bond. They worked in perfection together. Sean Kinns, Xarik Passive, Jamie Harvest and Sabrina Ravage. He smiled at the somewhat normal group of teens, as far as he could tell, good combat skills, three of the four had a grasp of their semblance, all looked promising.

Team Cardinal however was a problem. The bullying that was going on was starting to get on his nerves. He gave the boys time to solve the problem themselves so they could learn but it appeared that that was not going to be the case and he would have to intervene himself if it continued or they may not survive their classmates retribution which was bound to come sooner rather than later.

The last remaining four: Nora and Ren from a small remote village north of Vale that had taken in the two orphans from a Grimm attack that wiped out both families. Nora was a bundle of destructive energy on par with the Arc sisters which scared Ozpin, however Ren kept her reigned in, mostly, which he was thankful for.

Yang Xiao Long, Taiyang's daughter, was a force to be reckoned with. She had a brash nature that compelled her to act first and think second like her father. She was one of the top students to graduate from Signal and had amazing combat skills although her drive for knowledge was average at best. Good spirited and a walking volcano ready to blow her top at the drop of a hat she kept a lot of the male populace in his school on their toes for a few reasons: one, because she never shied from a fight; two, because she would use her fist over words towards most guys; and three, anyone who hurt her younger sister was sure to suffer.

The final person on his scroll who was the younger sister to Rose's daughter, Ruby Rose, she stopped a dust robbery by herself and chased off the infamous Roman Torchwick. A skilled wielder with a oversized scythe like her Uncle Qrow who had taught her how to wield the weapon. She was bound to be just like her mother, always walking headfirst into every mess doing her best to do the right thing.

"This year will certainly be interesting." He mumbled to himself, raising his mug to his mouth as the entire academy shook. His eyes went wide for a moment as he balanced his coffee so it didn't spill before sighing and putting it down. Getting up, he grabbed his cane and walked over to the elevator as the building shook once more. He could only guess as to what he was about to walk into as he stepped into the elevator and rode it down to the ground floor and made his way over to the dining hall where he guessed the commotion was coming from…

 **Dinner ~ Now**

Jaune didn't know what had all gone wrong he was just sitting enjoying his food with his girlfriend and friends around him when an explosion rocked the entire room. Pyrrha giggled and tipped her head onto Jaune's shoulder causing him to sigh in defeat and blush. Looking over at the kitchen where the noise came from there was now a very big hole where the wall used to be. Ren and Nora could both clearly be seen Ren holding onto a frying pan that was smoking, a surprised and scared look on his face.

Nora on the other hand was all smiles, completely lost as to what had just happened as a second explosion went off from the frying pan shaking the room again and opening the wall on the other side of the dining room next to the double doors. A girl with aqua blue hair bolted right at them. The expression on her face made it very clear she was about to maim them. She prepared to slug Ren and Nora when the frying pan exploded a third time blasting Ren who was still holding the pan into Nora sending them both through the wall behind them.

Ozpin arrived right behind Glynda who seemed to have materialized out of nowhere and was currently yelling for the culprit(s) to reveal himself/herself/themselves. Everyone save Ren, Nora, and Sabrina had ducked under their tables to avoid whatever was happening. There was a shout and then the sound of pain followed by an exclamation of "Ren!" from Nora as he was clobbered him on the head with the frying pan comedically.

A moment later the girl with blue hair stormed off with the frying pan in hand as it exploded once more but it didn't seem to faze her as she punched it. With angry mumblings about 'people taking what was not theirs' she disappeared through the new exit formed by the explosions the frying pan caused and made her way back to the armory. The rest of the girls of Team Sapphire got up and followed, concerned about their teammate. The sole male member, Sean, remained as both team leaders eyes met, to Jaune's surprise he did not seem angry with Jaune because of the trouble his teammates had caused.

As the sound died down everyone could hear Nora's mixed apologies and complaints while Ren was scolding her about using equipment found in the armory. Her defence was she didn't know anyone who used a frying pan as a weapon to which he deadpanned and sighed, standing up and dusting himself off. He massaged the bump on his head from where the frying pan conked him tenderly, wincing a bit.

He looked ahead and saw both Ozpin and Glynda looking back and just shook his head. Ozpin smiled amused while Glynda gave him a dumbfounded look that slowly contorted into anger. As he glanced around the room he realized that the frying pan essentially wrecked the place. He grabbed Nora's hand and told her to come with him to apologize to the girl who she 'borrowed' it from…..

As those two left the room the craters and missing walls began to repair themselves thanks Glynda as she directed her riding crop at the broken sections of wall. Ozpin got the attention of the student body and asked them to go back to enjoying their dinner and not worry about anything else for the rest of the night.

Ruby watched Jaune as his head slumped down on the table and Pyrrha placed her hand on his back, rubbing it, she wasn't sure how to help Yang without hurting Jaune and Pyrrha, Pyrrha who was her friend and Jaune's girlfriend after all. The moments when Yang stared at him for prolonged periods of time and a look of despair eclipsed her face as she eyed the two was more than enough of a motivation to at least try and give her sister a chance or something, Ruby thought. That way she could be happy too.

Pyrrha announced she was going to go check on Ren and Nora and make sure everything was okay. Jaune said he would join her after speaking to the headmaster and Sean to apologize for the commotion his teammates caused. He got up and approached Sean, formally apologizing to the boy who could only smile and laugh.

"She has a frying pan as a weapon you know, something like this was bound to happen eventually, just glad no one got hurt." Sean said with a hint of humor in his voice as he stood up.

"S'pose we should go inform the headmaster and find our teammates before a battle or something breaks out." Jaune said as he and Sean walked over to where Ozpin was standing, surveying the repaired walls. He nodded at the two boys as they stopped in front of him and listened to their story with a small smile on his face.

"Hunters and huntresses come up with stranger weapons every year but, alas, I'm glad no one was harmed or this would be a much more serious issue. You would do well to remind your teammate about taking property out of the armory, Mr. Arc." Ozpin said as he turned and made his way back toward his office.

Jaune and Sean had just stepped outside when petals appeared next to him signaling Ruby's arrival. She accompanied them as they walked. She seemed in a strange mood as Jaune noted she was very fidgety and kept opening her mouth like she wanted to say something to him but before she could utter a sound she would close it. Sean understood that Ruby wanted to talk to Jaune about something privately and excused himself telling Jaune that if he found their teams he would call his scroll.

Jaune thanked the boy who disappeared hastily. Ruby appreciatively stared at his departing figure. Jaune looked at her and waited for her speak. She looked at him, their eyes meeting, her expression and stance took on a serious tone that scared him a bit.

"Jaune, why didn't you choose Yang?" she asked bluntly. Jaune's face turned red at the abrupt question.

"Ruby, I like Yang I do and given more time maybe things would've worked that way but I also have feelings for Pyrrha, I don't know what to do." He said as his shoulders slumped a bit at the prospect of hurting someone he cared about.

"She told me everything from when she ran into you at the club and the weekends afterwards and if you both had as much fun as she said, wouldn't it have been enough?" Ruby sincerely asked. She wasn't really sure how these relationship things worked but understood at least if you enjoyed time with someone why not spend more time with them, right?

Jaune shook his head as he stood there unsure of what to say. She wasn't wrong and he spent a lot of time with both Pyrrha as well as Yang since they started hanging out and it's not like he could just be with both of them, could he?

"Gah! This is something I should ask my dad about..." Jaune muttered as he stood there quietly looking at his first friend from Beacon. The two of them stood there a moment longer before Ruby hugged him and patted his shoulder.

"I need to get back to my team before they think you're doing something lewd. Yang does care about you Jaune, as does Pyrrha, so I'm sure things will work out one way or the other. After all, we are the best leaders ever, right?" She said sweetly. Jaune just nodded and thanked her before turning and heading the direction Sean went.

In the shadows of one of the pillars amber eyes burned brightly, the owner of said eyes having decided to sneak out and eavesdrop on the conversation between the team leaders. Cinder smiled sinisterly as the series of events that unfolded had developed perfectly according to her plan. Now all she had to do was give some pushes here and there to cause her favorite kind of disaster, the one we're friends turn on each other. She stepped back into the dining hall after the red blur zipped by and couldn't help but feel a little bit giddy as she sat down to enjoy the remainder of her dinner.

* * *

 **Author Note**

So two things real quick, I didnt know at the time that mistrals academy was called Haven and have since updated that to fit the correct cannon in that respect. Secondly I overlooked a very big typo error and have since fixed it. Sorry for the confusion if you reread this and it seems minorly different.


	4. I Am Your Shield

Nightmare in Passing

"All classes have been cancelled?" Jaune said confused as he looked over at his teammates who shrugged at him. The other teams also were looking at their scrolls as well, their faces shared the same confused look as Juane's. The overhead speakers suddenly released a buzzing sound and then cleared up. Ozpin's voice carried throughout the school.

"All first year teams and Team CFVY are to report to the auditorium immediately." The speakers went silent as everyone scrambled to the auditorium to hear what the headmaster wanted. The low murmur of rumors from the flow of students drifted into Jaune's ear ranging from a reward ceremony for jobs well done to someone stole something valuable or broke Ozpin's mug and he intended to find the culprit.

The groups entered the auditorium to see their teachers as well as several other huntsmen and huntresses standing in a line on either side of Ozpin who did have his mug in tact.

"Welcome children, I'm sorry for the short notice but we have a problem in the Emerald Forest and the training grounds. It seems that something or someone is disabling and destroying the security cameras that allow us to monitor the areas as well as you during exercises outside the safety of these walls."

He took a sip before continuing on, "On top of that it seems that the Grimm are somewhat frenzied by whatever is out there and are now gathering into large moving packs. It is up to you students with the assistance of a fully trained Huntsman or Huntress to deal with the increasingly dangerous threat."

"Whoever you're assigned to will be the temporary team leader of your group and you must follow their lead if you are serious about your commitment to be a protector of this world. You are to follow their instructions without question. I assure you of this, the Hunters you see before you is what I hope you all to become." He paused to let his words sink in before he wrapped up the meeting and send them on their way.

Everyone was taken aback by the sudden mission they were handed but at the same time an unanimous cheer went up from all the first years about showing their grit and proving their worth as Hunters of grimm. Ozpin smiled a bit, of course it would be them who would find this serious situation so exciting.

With that Ozpin moved over to one of the tables and sat down, pulling out his scroll, and began speaking to a man with silver and gray hair. Ruby of course recognized her uncle and immediately jumped on him screaming, "Uncle Qrow, Hi!" He just smiled and patted her on the head before peeling her off and pushing her back towards her team saying they could talk later.

The teams dispersed and made their way towards the ten Huntsman and Huntresses that stood waiting in a line. They stared coldly at the teams to mask their glee at getting to take a team out into the field with them. The Hunters and Huntresses seemed to know each other as some quietly conversed waiting to depart:

On the far right stood Faalador Haze, his armor gleaming in the light with a shield resting on the wall behind him. His sword strapped to his side had sparks glint off of it as it lightly swayed. His sister, Emberly Haze, next to him wearing the exact same apparel. Small lightning bolts jumped onto her armor from Faalador's sword. Both had auburn colored hair and electric blue eyes.

Dravius Kern was third in the line. He had slicked black hair had a chiseled face. He wore a grey muscle shirt, a pair of black shorts, a pair of handguards and combat boots. The rest of his body clearly bulged with muscles, he had a black greatsword that was twice his size resting on his back and a single dagger in a sheath connected to his belt.

His partner Harold Brass had no visible weapons besides the oversized glove he was wearing on his right hand along with little vials that had different colored liquids in a bandolier around his waist. He was the youngest huntsman there that wasn't a student. He had sandy blond hair and a white lab coat with blue jeans and a black shirt on underneath. He was speaking quietly to Viviane Vassel, Snow Field and Sugar Onomoi.

Viviane Vassel had silver hair with white streaks running through on the left side of her head where her hair ended in a ponytail. Her warm, brown eyes glanced every few minutes at her spiked shield and spiked club sitting on the wall making sure it was still there. She donned a red leathered pants and leather vest with a grey undershirt. She had several tattoos that spiraled up her left arm that resembled red teardrops.

Snow Field looked very much like Weiss in appearance with long white flowing hair, pale skin, white blouse with a white corset underneath and white dress pants. She looked like any other Huntress until you got to to her face. Her eyes were black as night giving the illusion she had enlarged pupils. Her crazed smile that desired carnage gave the students an unsettling feeling. She had a mortar-like apparatus sitting next to her with a open black case that had 20 hand sized clear balls that held different colors of dust in them. Each one had a black and red dust mark on it shaped like a cherry with a fuse, the kids guessed it was her own design.

Sugar Onomoi shared the same crazed smile as Snow. Her katana had a dark red colored edge. She wore white breeches and a tunic that was partially undone showing off a fair amount of cleavage to the students, the boys gawked as if under some hypnotic spell while the girls rolled their eyes in disgust. On her head she had a black bandanna that trapped her dark red hair, the same color as her sword, underneath it. Behind her a reddish brown tail puffed up and flickered about.

Zylia Poddle and Cod Moor both had darker skin and stood silently gazing ahead, watching the second year teams that were moving towards them. Zylia was a lightish brown with a amazonian build, blue hair that flowed down her back stopping above her waist and with purple eyes. She was the second tallest person, Cod towering over her by a few more inches. Her rapier's blade was made of pink dust. The sheath was also pink and seemed to also be of a single, solid dust crystal.

Cod was bald and wore sunglasses to cover his eyes. He had several piercings on his ears and a cool smile on his face. He was wearing a black suit with a white undershirt, a black tie that was neatly pressed perfectly on him, even his shoes were shining. He looked like a well dressed businessman and could easily play that part if it wasn't for the grenade launcher that was much bigger than the one that Nora carried. He had orange dust canisters packed in a suitcase that was resting at his feet next to him. He gave a respectful nod to Snow as the two smiled to each other.

Finally at the end of the line Lily Ink stood a little more apart from everyone else filing her nails as she didn't seem to pay mind to anyone but herself. She had black hair, green eyes and skin that seemed to have a blue tinge to it. She had a willowy appearance, slender fingers held a light grip on a kite shield, a sword sticking out of the top for easy drawing access. She wore a formfitting jade colored bodysuit that had intricate blue and white swirls sewn into it.

Lily raised her eyes for a moment as blue eyes met hers. Jaune looked at her finishing his survey of the adults lined up. He felt a chill run up his spine as she held his gaze a few moments longer before she looked back down at her nails and returned to filing them. For some reason she gave him the same withered look that his great-grandmother would give him when he did something wrong.

Speaking of his great-grandmother, Jaune remembered he needed to send his great-grandfather an update on his progress at Beacon. He had just pulled his scroll out and dialed the call when he felt a hand land firmly on his shoulder causing him to freeze up as the Arc ringtone played behind him. The very familiar smell of a cigar and metal wafted to his nose as he slowly turned his head and saw a bushy silverish beard, frowning mouth and a twinkling blue eye even though he could only make out half of the person's face due to his perspective, he immediately knew who it was.

"Put that scroll away boy, it's a bit late to call me since I'm here already." The older man said his voice carrying a deep, old tone to it. Jaune smiled as relief flooded through him and gave the older gentleman a hug. The man smiled and returned the hug as his serious expression faded away.

"You know Jaune, I expected to hear from you a few months ago about how the first part of the semester was going, not from Ozpin inquiring two days ago about your unusual situation….." Jecht said as he looked up at the man in question coming forward with Qrow right behind.

"Ah, Sir Jecht, it's a pleasure as always to see an old friend. How glad I am you could make the trip." Ozpin said, greeting Jecht with a handshake as Qrow tried to make himself look small behind him.

"But of course my friend but of course, I had to check on my great-grandson after all, make sure he was alive. I heard an interesting story from Heaven, our dear Matriarch, about her son being tossed off a cliff? She says she's tried contacting you about it but said you never answered her calls, but it's okay I'm sure she is planning to travel this way soon to personally meet with you." Jecht informed Ozpin, the latter's skin growing paler and paler. Jecht noticed Qrow and squinted his eyes at him trying to remember something.

"Ah and how are you, baby chick? You still using that oversized farming tool?" Jecht said chuckling. Qrow on the other hand was beat red at being called his old nickname. "Anyways it looks like we should head to your office and discuss this matter in private." Jecht finished as his eyes met with Lily's. She seemed to blush, hard, and looked away as she resumed her nail filing once more.

"Be good out there, Jaune." His great-grandfather told him a soft sternness in his voice. "I recommend working with her." He turned around and pointed a thumb at Lily who again blushed hearing his words. "Have fun on your field trip we will have time to speak when you return…" He trailed off as he limped away with Ozpin and Qrow in tow, both looking downcast and defeated.

Jaune just stood there rooted to the spot as Pyrrha waved her hand in front of his face trying to get his attention. He was still shocked his great-grandfather was here and that his mom was making a trip soon.

Yang was snickering at her Uncle's nickname while Ren and Nora were trying to bring Jaune back to the present. Ruby looked at Ozpin and wondered how old is he if he's good friends with Jaune's great-grandfather. Pyrrha finally gave up with the waving and kissed Jaune snapping him out of his stupor.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune snapped back to reality, surprised. "Sorry about zoning out but I could of sworn I just heard my great-grandpa say my mom was coming to visit." Since Pyrrha didn't know much about Jaune's family she was curious as to why this news would garner a reaction like this from him but chose to not say anything to him and instead focus on the task at hand, defending Beacon. "Anyways," Jaune continued. "Let's pick someone to work under." As Jaune said this he noticed Pyrrha's eyes narrow and she took a very aggressive stance, her arm snaking around his and gripping it tightly. He turned around to find Lily was right next to him eyeing him like a thrifty shopper does a choice cut of meat at the butcher's. The expression on her face made it clear that she decided to take them with her. She kept eyeing up Jaune as if he was a precious gem or rare artifact. Pyrrha did not like the attention Lily was giving him.

"I think we will find someone else to travel with." Pyrrha said through clenched teeth as she pulled Jaune away from the woman. They made it a few steps before Jaune was physically prevented from moving as Lily grabbed a hold of his free arm, glaring at Pyrrha with a disdained, judging look.

"I will be taking you four with me for sure so don't bother running any farther, young Nikos." Lily spoke in a sweet melodical tone that was in complete contrast to her entire demeanor.

At this point the other teams had dispersed to the other Huntsmen: Team RWBY had joined up with Dravius Kern, much to the man's pleasure, as he winked at the group of girls. He hefted his greatsword and flexed a muscle before smiling and taking them to the side to discuss the plan of attack.

Team SPHR linked up with Viviane Vassel. She looked far too happy about the prospect of going on a mission and it unnerved the four team members when she grabbed each of their left arms and examined them. She seemed to decide something before she grabbed the spiked weaponry and ushered them out of the door and towards the sky docks.

Team CRDL didn't even get a chance to move when Sugar Onomoi decided she wanted the four boys all to herself. She grabbed Cardin by the arm, much to his protest, and had the other three boys falling behind as she moved towards Harold and team CFVY who were talking in excited whispers about effective grimm extermination techniques.

Harold himself was explaining that he was a dust alchemist and made volatile creations with different forms of dust and a catalyst substance. He then lobbed his creations at foes with the use of his weapon, a glove that let him throw things really, really far and fast. He was all smiles as he and Coco traded innuendos back and forth. The rest of the team rolled their eyes at their leader before they noticed Sugar bouncing their way with team CRDL in tow.

"Oh Harold!" She called sweetly. "We've got our groups so let's pair them up, okay? Hmm... you and her seem like a good match with me." She said as she pointed to Velvet and Cardin who looked like he was ready to die.

"You big guy with the sword go with the pole armed boy and run guerilla tactics" She huffed out as she pushed Yatsuhashi and Sky together both just nodded and stayed quiet.

You two look like you might be fast, so you will go together to scout no hide and seek okay!" She said pointing at Russel and Fox who moved next to each other to avoid the manhandling that was happening.

"And last but not least you stylish girl and the one hander you will keep the professor safe, okay! Or I'll break every bone in your body." She said as she pushed Dove next to Coco and Harold who couldn't help but smile at Sugar's promise to the team leaders. He didn't mind her too much since they had been together for a while and she always acted like she owned him, making decision for both of them. The only time he didn't enjoy her company was in the lab when she would prevent work from being done…..

Team CSTL decided to split up upon examining each Huntsman and Huntress. Thrawn himself approached Cod Moor and spoke to him. It was a few minutes before they both walked over to Snow Field who was surprised and elated to spend some time with Cod. After a brief explanation she agreed to join up with the two as well. Cuddles, Sandual and Leroy separated as per Thrawn's instructions and each one approached one of the remaining hunters. Cuddles went up to Zylia and extended a large hand to her which she shook albeit a bit taken aback by this new development as he explained that he was to go with her because they were both fighters who relied on speed.

Sandual and Leroy both walked over to the Haze twins who were watching the strange set up. Leroy explained to them that they planned to exterminate a large number of Grimm and that it would be beneficial to team up with the twins. He extended his hand outward to Faalador while Sandual winked at Emberly and inquired about her armor as he suspected she conducted electricity. He explained that he could breathe electricity, per say, and because of his Bird Faunus ability of a light bone structure he could glide through the air meaning he was good at surveillance from the sky.

Thrawn pulled out his scroll and dialed up the other team leaders as he pulled up and sent a quickly typed layout of his plan. He smiled as everyone's scroll linked with his and everyone in the room glanced at their scrolls before they looked up at the boy who was now standing at the podium waiting to address everyone.

"My fellow Huntsmen and Huntresses as you have all now received the overview of my tactical plan, allow me to first introduce myself as Thrawn Avery. I am the leader of Team Crystal and it was by personal request to have our letters rearranged in the way they are and not follow the typical first letter is team leader theme." He smiled at their confused faces of his classmates.

"Now concerning the plan, my family specializes in annihilating grimm and we do so with extreme prejudice. As my fellow classmates have seen, my dear brother Cuddles has the ability to create a powerful beam of light. He has two types, orange which will destroy inorganic material and blue which will destroy organic material. As marked on the map we have designated a large zone marked with white. We are going to herd the grim there and then terminate them with one strike." He paused for a moment as the sudden realization of how everyone was to be bait for this caused a few of the students to begin to argue.

"I understand the hesitation as well as the danger of outrunning grimm instead of facing them as well as the fact that several of us," He looked at all the people wearing heavy armor. "don't run, but will fight to the last breath." He said cutting off the rebuttals they raised.

"The heavily armored will hold the line at the spot we're leading the grimm through. We don't have to exert too much force, just enough to hold them back, so that everyone is out of the clearing when Cuddles uses his semblance." Thrawn pointed to map and marked some area with an "x".

"The plan is to form walls of ice along the outside perimeter leaving two openings. One side will be where you lead the grimm into the area. The exit is where the heavy armored will stand by to intercept and force the grim to remain in the area. I cannot stress this enough about staying out of the clearing. Timing is key so we don't have any accidental casualties at all. You will all have to draw them in at the same time to make the most out of this, then it's the clean up crew. Those who are stealthy will guard the entrance and slay any grimm who turn around and try and leave the enclosement." Thrawn paused to catch his breath before continuing.

"Cuddles will create a circle with his semblance but a circle of this magnitude can only be created once and will deplete his aura for a few hours. Once he activates the circle, he will be picked up by a bullhead to rest and quickly transported to Beacon. Everyone else will then do clean up and scale the cliff side to safety." Thrawn spoke quickly as he still had their attention.

"Were everyone else comes in is leading them towards the area where we have the trap set. Mobility is key to huntsmen and huntresses alike and a slow target is typically a dead target so be fast today." He finished to a resounding silence from the crowd.

The plan was pretty straightforward and simple, lure grim out and then bombard them to nothingness. Most of the students either nodded or shrugged at the plan. The adults on the other hand were very interested in this "plan" as they knew from experience plans never went as you wanted them to, but they would humor the kid and if anything went wrong they would be sure to let his parents know of their son's hilarious escapade and how much he was like his father.

With that everyone spent 5 minutes going over all their equipment and making sure they had everything. There was muffled talk while students and the Hunters and Huntresses started to pack up and head down to the air dock. Pyrrha was annoyed, to say the least, as she tightly had Jaune's hand entwined with hers keeping herself between him and Lily who Pyrrha was pretty certain was simply trying to get a rise out of her. Normally things like this wouldn't bother Pyrrha but she felt extremely territorial against Lily and she couldn't even fathom why.

As the mob of warriors came down and looked at the Bullheads they were surprised to see no pilots by them and wondered who was flying them down or if they had to walk. Not to mention the fact they couldn't all fit in a single bullhead anyways. They walked around the corner to the next landing pad and saw a ship that was definitely not standard issue.

They saw a man standing next to the airship, he was about 6 feet tall with black skin, brown eyes and black hair, standard military cut, wearing a white military suit with a matching admiral hat and smoking a cigar. There was a flask visibly attached to his hip with a chain and lock attached to it with a small picture of a crow on it with a red circle around it and a line going through it. Ruby and Yang looked to each other before bursting out in laughter sharing in an inside joke.

"You the lot going into Emerald Forest, right? I'm Gunny but you can call me Gun, the pilot of this beauty called _Lady Luck_ , he told them while patting the side of the ship. It's smaller than the gunships that Atlas and Vale use to deal with ariel Grimm but larger than a Bullhead. He smiled as a few familiar faces stood out to him. Dravius walked up, shook his hand and patted his shoulder.

He explained to the kids who asked that his ship was a experimental dropship that was dubbed a Vulture. It was heavily armored and sleek with its similarities to the Bullhead but several sizes large and had 4 wings instead of the 2 that a Bullhead had. It had 5 wheels on the bottom that it rested on, spreading out the weight and had one long door on each side for boarding and leaving. Under each wing was a second turbine with dust canisters as well that pointed downwards. They either kept the ship up or functioned for something else (Gun couldn't remember). At the front there were two large, rotatable cannons but otherwise there was no other weaponry.

The teams were excited to be out on this mission. It was a nice change of pace from their regular routine, also it was a chance for Jaune and Pyrrha to spend some time together when they split up from everyone else. The only thing that soured Pyrrha's mood was Lily, who had been an arms' reach from Jaune since she had claimed JNPR for this mission. Jaune was just as confused by Lily who he couldn't remember ever meeting, pulled him to the side and asked if he knew who she was.

As everyone boarded the Vulture and took in the interior they were surprised by the amount of comfort seating that had been built into the ship. It looked to fit about 50 people with 25 seats on either side of the walls. Then there was the open space that looked to be cargo space or extra transport space for more passengers. The pilot's area was right at the front as usual and then the back part of the area had a door which they discovered was small barracks with 20 beds and a small bathroom and kitchen.

Everyone was surprised because this ship was looking more and more like a barracks or mobile combat house. As everyone buckled in for the ride, Jaune sat down with Pyrrha who claimed one side and Yang who surprisingly claimed the other. Lilly looked unhappy as she moved to sit by Dravius who was sharpening his blade. He seemed equally unenthusiastic about her presence as he pulled a jacket from a rack above him and slipped it on.

Jaune smiled as he realized that maybe people did live on this ship, which reminded him….

"Hey Pyrrha, did you still want to know about my home?" He asked and she quickly nodded as her and Yang both leaned into to listen to him.

"So my home is northwest of Vale. It sits along the ocean and has several sea and air docks for trade. There are long farmlands that run along that provide food for everyone as well as the imports we buy. There is a school for huntsmen and huntresses in-training called Crescent and it resides near the center, however it's far from an equivalent to Beacon or the other Academies so we go to other Academies typically." He said as he noticed the rest of his team and RWBY were all paying attention as well as Lily and Dravius.

"So then we got the housing and entertainment districts that run parallel to the farms with a Tram line the runs from one side to the other. On the other side there is more farmland and several forts. In the center is a castle. Everything stands behind a wall that runs along the border with a tram line hugging it for quick defense response. On the other side of the wall is, of course, Grimm..." He trailed off as the lights dimmed and went red.

"JNPR, you're up first; get ready." Gun said over the speakers as they got up and prepped to jump. They got ready to go as the doors opened up and the lights turned green. Team JNPR was the first team to be dropped off with Lily 100 feet from where the staging point was. They had to clear out and cover the north flank for the girls to set up their ice walls and make sure that no Grimm snuck up on them while they worked.

Jaune landed with a thud, landing awkwardly on his butt as Pyrrha landed next to him with a smile on her face, she reached down offering him a hand and pulled him up to her giving him a kiss as he got to his feet. He just smiled as the growl of several Beowolves surrounding them interrupted their moment. Pyrrha, annoyed by the unwanted company, threw Milo at the first one before blocking a swipe from one of the other ones that lunged at her. Jaune put his back to Pyrrha as he caught a Beowolf mid air and shield bashed the other that was going for Pyrrha who now had Milo in her hand again.

They dealt with the rest of the Beowolves and smiled as Nora and Ren popped out of the bushes with smiles on their faces. Lilly touched down silently next them startling everyone as she pointed to the Boarbatusks, a King Taijitu and three deathstalkers that were coming towards them.

"Ren, Nora, get the Boarbatusks. Jaune, Pyrrha, the snakes. And I'll get the deathstalkers." She ordered and everyone dispersed without question.

Ren smiled as the Boarbatusks charged them and felt a slight twinge of pity for the creatures as they balled up and rolled at them. Nora had a smile on her face as she raised her hammer like a baseball bat and angled her swing causing poor creature to careen into the air where Ren was waiting and impaled it. The one after met the ground with a sickening crunch as her swing broke its bone plating and crushed it before she swung around and hit the third that came at her through a tree and impaled its tusks into the following tree where it hung limply, a perfect line drive. The other five boars stopped short and circled Nora as she hefted her hammer, ready.

All five charged and she jumped up as they crashed into each other. With a giggle, Nora spun back down smashing the ground flipping them and Ren came down, slicing the unarmored bellies of each one. Nora smiled as Ren patted her on the head and they continued on to find more Grimm.

Jaune and Pyrrha dove headfirst at the snake, Jaune going for the black while Pyrrha focused on the white. The black head lunged at Jaune who blocked it and took a swing getting a slight cut on its head. It reared back and struck again as he sidestepped and stabbed his sword into its eye. He looked over and saw the white head go limp as Pyrrha pulled her spear from the roof of its mouth and was glad she wasn't having any problems before rolling to the side as the snake slammed its head down on where he was. He sprung back from his roll and stabbed into its shut eye thrusting as hard as he could and it stopped moving.

Jaune and Pyrrha smiled at each other as they both appreciated the progress Jaune was making with her training. They shivered at the icy cold air that suddenly hit them and turned to see Lily smiling as she approached, the Deathstalkers behind her cut into pieces and disappearing. They didn't even hear her fight let alone her approach and watched her warily as she eyed them with a smirk.

An explosion to their right followed by rising pink smoke signaled Nora had found someone or something found her and probably wasn't keen on being the orange haired girl's friend. Jaune just sighed as they moved on looking for more Grimm to deal with.

Xarik, Sabrina and Jamie had a hard task between them as they were the second group to be dropped off and began to construct the ice wall and quickly. Sean and Viviane both landed lightly in the trees and both scoured the area looking for any Grimm. They spotted an Ursa at the same time and both pounced on it as it was creeping up on the girls who had just landed. After that quick kill they snagged a few Beowolves sleeping in a small clearing and a Boartusk laying in mud by itself.

Xarik pulled out Cyrene and began firing arrows that exploded into water as Jamie froze them and Sabrina shaped them into solid walls. It took them 30 minutes of non-stop work to complete the two walls that both stood 20 feet tall and a good 200 feet long on both sides. Xarik was exhausted and glad to have a few minutes of reprieve and also happy to not have any Grimm to deal while they were working on the wall. Sabrina and Jamie on the other hand were all smiles as they looked at their handiwork of the two half circles as well as the platforms they had made at the entrance for them to rest at. They together carried Xarik up onto the platforms as they waited for everyone else to arrive.

The next group dropped a few minutes away as the walls of ice in the distance marked where Team SPHR was protecting. Sandual, Leroy, Faalador and Emberly were keeping pace with the girls as they made the wall and clearing any Grimm in the immediate area, which wasn't much surprisingly considering the reports that the cameras in this area had gone down and that Grimm were swarming. The brothers nodded to each other, excited, as Sandual spread his arms out and used his glider wings to cruise overhead while the other three fighters landed hard and got to work dispatching the Ursa and Deathstalkers that were nearby.

The _Lady Luck_ cruised on taking its passengers to the next drop point where the trees were thicker and they couldn't see really well below. Gun yelled that, 'His radar was picking up a ton of Grimm in the area below them.' and Team RWBY said, 'They could handle it.' Thrawn nodded as the girls all fell backwards out of the Vulture as it turned. Dravius thanked Gun for the lift and winked coyly at Sugar, Snow and Zylia before he nose dived after the girls. Gun hit the thrusters and headed south quickly with team CFVY and CRDL ready for their drops.

Ruby and her team were surprised by the literal increase in Grimm since their last time in the Emerald Forest during initiation. Yeah there were packs back then, but right now they were being swarmed by Beowolves and Ursa that were numbering well into the hundreds. They had jumped from the Vulture down into the forest and had landed above a mass of black. Yang was gonna get their attention with two shells from her gauntlets when Dravius crashed through the trees and landed on top of an Ursa Major.

His sword in one hand as he grabbed ahold of one of the spikes on its back and slapped the side of his sword into the Ursa's butt causing the Ursa to rear and swipe wildly moving forward into the rest of the grimm. The girls sat there shocked, having forgot about him before a flashback of their initiation popped into everyone's head they came to the same thought that this guy was as crazy as Nora.

Sugar was super giddy by the time they reached their drop point, she could hear the Grimm below and basically grabbed Cardin and Velvet before leaping out of the Vulture with Fox and Russel in tow. She was all smiles as they crashed through the trees her Katana extended forward as it went through a Large Beowulf with more armor plating on it than the smaller ones. It exploded and the sound alerted everything else as the group moved from their spot, the howls of more Beowolves echoing all around them.

Coco was one for theatrics and couldn't resist hopping into Harold's arms, throwing her own around his neck and giving him a pouty look as he just looked around at everyone else sheepishly. He resigned himself to this as he jumped from the Vulture with her in his arms with Yatsuhashi, Sky and Dove who all plummeted like rocks in their heavy armor.

They landed in a small crater as Harold seemed to touch down without a sound. Coco had a look on her face that looked feral as she gazed at the man holding her. She could barely keep the girly squeal of delight down that she wanted so badly to let loose. The boys all looked on slightly embarrassed as Harold finally set her down and she let him go after giving him a slap on the ass.

Thrawn stared intently at his scroll tracking each of the teams and Cod and Snow both were watching for Nevermores or other large Grimm to appear. Gun was smoking a cigar and muttering to himself about the fact that someone kept stealing all of them from his favorite stores in Vale. As they circled back around to where the girls were finishing the first wall, Thrawn couldn't help but smile at their skilled work.

" _Well they certainly are moving faster than I expected. The other teams should be here in 20 minutes. The girls should be done in 10. Probably do two overhead circles before Cuddles and Zylia jump."_ Thrawn thought to himself as he surveyed the area, spotting Sandual gliding through the trees and the rest of his team making their way without any issues.

"We got company." The pilot announced as he banked to the right a swath of black feathers flying past and the screech of the Nevermore that barreled by. Thrawn smiled as he looked at Cod who already had his G-Launcher ready and fired at the Nevermore that was turning around to face them. It got hit in the face as an explosion of fire and electricity engulfed it, he smiled tossing a small black ball out of the Vulture and it zoomed into the fiery vortex engulfing the Nevermore, detonating and caused a secondary explosion. The Nevermore's smoking husk fell from the sky.

Snow looked at the explosion, a wide smile on her face, giggled and patted Cod head with her hand causing him to blush. He couldn't help the cheeky smile on his face as they cruised back over to where they had previously dropped off RWBY he looked down to see the mass of black was no longer there.

The girls were literally rocketing through the trees trying to keep up with Dravius as he rode the Ursa without any care in the world. They couldn't even comprehend what they were seeing as the man was holding on with one hand and smacking his sword into the Ursa Major and riding it like a horse. The howl from the Ursa was also drawing a lot of attention as a glance behind them showed a swarm of black and many angry red eyes chasing them.

"You know, this is kind of ridiculous. Why can't we stay and fight them instead of using a trap?" Yang asked as they stopped a moment on a large tree branch to let the Grimm close the distance a bit.

"There are a lot of Grimm though and if we somehow got caught unexpectedly we would probably be in trouble." Blake replied as Yang cocked her gauntlets and got ready for the next jump. A loud groan behind them caught their attention as Dravius stood on top of the Ursa that was lying dead on the ground.

"You ladies up for some food after this? My treat." He said flexing his arm as he smiled at them. Weiss and Yang shared a gagging face while Ruby exclaimed 'Yes!' Blake just shrugged. _Food was food and free food was even better however the best kind of food free or otherwise was fish._ She thought as she smiled at her team's deadpanned gaze at her drooling. The howling of the approaching Grimm reminded them it was time to go and they looked down to see Dravius disappear into the forest.

"Really? You would think he would of at least said something…." Weiss said miffed at the Huntsman who was barreling through the woods his sword trailing behind him.

Cardin was annoyed, to say the least, he didn't know if it was the universe messing with him or fate just being cruel. Faunus, why was he paired up with so many Faunus. Because his team talked to him after their battle with CSTL he had agreed to cooperate but still had ill feelings about it. Cardin was not brought up in the nicest family and he reckoned it was because of his upbringing he was a jerk to others who were different or weaker than him. It wasn't his fault, right?

He had been questioning this dilemma for awhile and had decided he would try and turn over a new leaf, but if his efforts backlashed then he would drop it. He was so caught up in his musings that he didn't notice that Fox and Russel were gone, along with Sugar who had apparently released her vice grip on him and the others without him noticing. Velvet was standing several feet away looking at him with a mix of reservation, fear and sadness. He sighed.

"Look um Velvet, I'm sorry for how I treated you in the past…um yeah." He said kicking himself inside for not knowing what else to say. Velvet just nodded and kept her distance from him as they moved forward from their spot toward the noise of howling that was more Beowolves. They made quick silent work of them as they made their way back toward the planned meeting point. They heard a large amount of howling that spiked on their left signaled that someone had attracted a lot of attention and moved to get ahead of the crowd when a Deathstalker burst forth from the ground and lunged at Cardin. He clubbed it in the face as he rolled under the two oncoming claws cracking the mask.

He swung once more breaking the mask and the Deathstalker flew backwards, unmoving. He turned to see Velvet sink as the ground beneath her feet gave out and she yelped in surprise. Cardin let go of his mace and dove for the hole to find her holding onto a root that was sticking out the dark abyss that seemed to continue downwards for miles. Cardin couldn't see the bottom because the sunlight didn't reach that far.

Cardin pulled out some rope he was carrying and tossed it down Velvet. He told her to grab on before he pulled her up. He extended a hand to her that she surprisingly took and helped her to her feet. "Are you okay?" He asked and she nodded before she dusted herself off. He retrieved his mace and they continued on albeit side by side now.

As they walked away they failed to notice a small Grimm's masked head peek out of the large hole and stare at them. A moment later a larger head extended up behind the smaller one and saw the two walking side by side. There was a glint of red in its eyes as it observed the two and then dipped back under the ground and began to burrow behind them causing minor tremors as Cardin and Velvet made their way to the ice walls.

Sky had to say working with other people outside of his own team was so much better as well as enjoyable even if his current teammate didn't speak at all. Outside of the introduction that his name was Yatsuhashi the guy had stayed silent with only the creak of his armor making noise. He didn't seem to mind Sky though as the two had worked fairly well together to deal with the Two King Taijitu that had snuck up on them as well well as the few Beowolves that had dared to try and fight them.

They were however forced to run when a larger Beowolf showed itself followed by a swarm of smaller ones and a few Deathstalkers. They had made it a good 5 minutes with all of the Grimm trailing behind them when they ran into Harold, Dove and Coco who had just felled a few Raptors and a Nevermore that had joined the fight in the small clearing. They didn't stop to spare any words as the howling sent the message it was time to move loud and clear.

"Anyways as I was saying on the ship, The other side of the wall is Grimm infested lands and there are 4 camps that Hunters outpost in." He said as they made their way towards where Nora's beacon was.

"The far west side of the city has a large dust mining complex that has been supplying us for 2 centuries. On the far east side there is mountains that house a fleet of airships as well as has a dust plant that powers everything." Jaune finished as he felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Pyrrha smiling at him. They shared a quick kiss and heard saw another explosion signaling they were close.

"I never got to attend Crescent you know, my mother wouldn't let me and my Father never explained why… So I asked my great grandpa Jecht to help me get here, and somehow he acquired fake transcripts and bam I was here." Jaune said as they saw they were close. They broke out of the dense underbrush and into the clearing and he felt his Jaw drop.

Jaune didn't know what to make of what he was seeing in front of him. Nora stood on top of a large mammoth-like Grimm that had two very large tusks and was relentlessly trying to shake her off. It tried to slam her into the rock face above the large cave that was probably this thing's den. Jaune shouted for her to get down but then it took notice of the rest of them and charged, clearly angry, as Nora was having the time of her life.

Pyrrha pushed Jaune out of the way with her semblance before darting to the right and narrowly avoiding the tusks that swiped left and right trying to cleave them. It made a horrible sound from its trunk as another pink explosion puffed up from its back as Nora unloaded another round of Magnhild on it. Jaune noticed Ren was on a ledge in the cliff wall observing what was going on below and unsure on how to intervene with the current proceedings. Truthfully, he had no idea how to deal with something that big either.

Jaune shouted to Pyrrha to join him as he set his shield for the next attack. The Goliath turned around and rushed them again. They both dove under the tusks and sliced at its legs, to little effect, as it slammed its side into the wall trying once more to remove the orange haired tyrant. Nora bashed it 3 more times before it dropped to its knees, surprising her, and rolled forcing her to let go or be crushed.

Nora kicked off and landed several feet away as it rose back up and got to its feet. Jaune didn't know what else they could do to take this thing down when Lily walked past him and raised her shield and sword. Jaune swore the Grimm's eyes narrowed before it lowered its head and swiped its tusks at her. Jaune yelled 'Look out' as she didn't even turn her shield to block them when ice formed on that side and stopped the tusks. She smiled as she moved forward and swung her sword down severing its trunk and then sliced at its front legs several time leaving deep cuts bringing it to its knees as she stepped to the side to avoid being crushed.

With a sick smile she looked over her shoulder at Jaune as she ran a hand over the Grimm mask while it was immobile and then pulled her arm back, ice forming along her blade, and she thrusted it into the Goliath's face mask were the ice spread and encased the Grimm's head as she pushed with more force cracking the newly formed ice shattering it and the mask, the sword sinking into the black flesh and killing the Grimm. JNPR looked at her as she smiled creepily at them before re-sheathing her sword. "Let's head back to the the others it's about time to get this party started." She said as she walked past them winking flirtatiously at Jaune. A blush spreading across his face, as he followed her with his eyes. Pyrrha glared menacingly at Lily's back, crossing her arms and grinding her teeth. Her patience with the woman was reaching a boiling point.

Gun had just finished his second circuit since the drop off and was about to pass over the ice walls that were being formed when Cuddles and Zylia jumped from the ship. _Show offs_ he thought as the two disappeared into the green. He turned to make his third pass over where the he had dropped the teams off. He looked at his remaining passengers as his radar pinged but there was nothing moving on the underbelly camera. He figured it was just an animal or something.

Cuddles impacted with the ground and seemed to bounce as he sprung forward from the momentum. Zylia was behind him as he started to run punching the ground and leaving a spike behind that glowed white. She felt slightly uncomfortable with the fact that this could harm her should something go wrong before they were finished but pushed the thought away as they kept moving, He placed three along the first wall and one at the entrance to the temporary canyon.

Moving to the other side he did the same placing three more along the wall and then ran into the center placing six more in alternating fashion to where the wall spikes were placed. He had one spike left on his right gauntlet as they made it to the small hole at the end were Faalador and Emberly were standing guard with Sandual and Leroy. They nodded to each other as Cuddles passed by and then proceeded to jog back and forth. Zylia was confused as to why he began jogging back and forth. The boy didn't seem to get tired out and was taking on a blue glow the more he moved.

Ruby saw Sugar, Fox and Russel bouncing through the trees with a mass of black trailing behind them and saw that they were at about the same distance as her and her team. She noted Cardin and Velvet were nowhere in sight. Off in the distance she could also see Harold with Coco, Dove, Yatsuhashi and Sky leading packs of Raptors and Deathstalkers in the same direction. There were loud growls, howls, hisses and roars as the mass of Grimm merged into one large wave that was bent on destroying the kids that were in front of them.

"So we just run into this valley with all these wonderful friends behind us, right?" Yang yelled as all of the people running merged into one mass. The Grimm were closing in fast and were about to be on them when a few explosions slowed their charge by a few seconds. Cod and Snow were looking down as they fired a second volley to give the Hunters a little more breathing room.

The teams grouped together as they made it to the middle of the ice ring the swarm of black and white closing in on them, pot shots being fired and anything to slow the advancing Grimm that were right behind them. They were almost to the other side of the ice enclosure when Cuddles was spotted glowing a brilliant blue and was barreling towards them, arms pumping hard as he had one last spike on his gauntlet that was glowing white. They all passed him as they left the ice ring and he slammed his fist into the ground activating his spikes all at once. He smiled as he felt his entire being burn from the draining aura. His armor feeling ridiculously heavy and watched with a goofy smile as white beams of light shot from each spike connecting to each other and the entire area lit up filling with a blinding light that caused everyone to look away. The painful shrieking of the Grimm crying out caused all the Faunus to cover their ears.

Thrawn smiled down as the whole area lit up in white light as it filled the entire area up and the Grimm that were bathed in it began to disintegrate and disappear. He could see his brother on his hands and knees struggling to stand up as the light grew brighter and brighter, extending a good 100 feet into the air. The sounds of the Grimm that had perished fading as everything became quiet.

As the bright light faded out and sound began to return to everyone's ears they looked around and could see the few grimm that were too big to be fully disintegrated by the blue light were dispersing in their own black color. The sigh of relief that swept around the circle at the success was heard as RWBY cheered and some laughter from the adults filled the area. They were proud of the kids and they had completed the plan with zero casualties.

Everyone took a moment to survey the area to make sure there were no surviving Grimm in the area and were pleased to not see any moving. The heads of King Taijutsus that had tried to slither up the ice wall were dispersing in the black mist that the Grimm caused and a few Deathstalkers were wilting away as well. Everything smaller than that had been outright destroyed. Coco scanned everywhere before fear set in. "Where's Velvet and Cardin!" She yelled as everyone took notice that they were not anywhere in sight.

Jaune looked at Pyrrha as a bright blue light shot into the sky and the echo of loud shrieking noises reached them. They smiled at each other sharing a sappy look that held a promise for something a little more intimate when they got back. Lily taking note of this threw an arm around Jaune's shoulder much to his surprise and Pyrrha's annoyance. She moved next to him and grabbed the offending arm and removed it from Jaune who smiled sheepishly and took a step away as the challenging smirk on Lily's face made Pyrrha angry.

As the light began to fade they could see everyone else standing around surveying the area, the telltale black mist of Grimm that had been slayed, disappearing. Ren noticed that two people from their original ground force was missing and nudged Jaune, whispering in his ear.

"Cardin and Velvet aren't there?" He said and everyone snapped to attention as they heard Coco declare the same thing. Jaune pulled out his scroll and called the _Lady Luck._ As Gun picked up the call everyone aboard heard the news and quickly started looking out and around trying to spot them. Thrawn pulled out his scroll and checked to see where their markers where and didn't see their scrolls showing at all. He felt dread at the prospect that something had happened to them and no one had noticed it during the entire operation. He was about to inform the team leaders when they heard Viviane announce she had eyes on them limping towards the front guards. Thrawn checked his scroll again and still didn't see them on it…..

"Gun, are they showing up on your radar?" He asked as he moved over by the pilot to look himself.

"No I don't see them at all." He said as they saw SPHR disappear as well.

"Viviane, you still there? We lost you on screen" Thrawn said anxiously. Something was definitely happening. It was unlikely that everything was malfunctioning at once; the odds were too great for that.

"Yeah we are still here. Cardin and Velvet just passed us. They look injured and... wait what is tha…" She was cut off by static as a single ping lit up the radar of that area and then a loud roar met everyone's ears.

Jaune and Pyrrha ran quickly to the group as he listened to the conversation taking place on the airship. With Ren, Nora and Lily right behind them, they got to everyone as Vivian's voice was heard that they had sight on Cardin and Velvet and that both looked in bad shape. Coco hearing this told Yatsuhashi and Fox to come with her with Russel, Fox and Sky right behind. Sugar felt uneasy that she had lost track of people under her supervision and moved to go with them.

The two groups sprinted out into the clearing and saw both Cardin and Velvet in the distance as they were clearly walking very awkwardly. Jaune watched them go as Thrawn mentioned they weren't showing up on radar when he saw the ground shift under both Cardin and Velvet and the two stopped moving. He heard Viviane's surprised tone before it was cut by static and saw both Cardin and Velvet fall over due to a large tremor that caused the ground, ice walls and trees to shake violently.

The ground in the middle of their clearing collapsed inward and smoke filled the area. A sense of dread ran through Jaune as he felt an evil presence emanate from the hole. He raised his sword and shield on guard as a loud roar echoed out and everyone covered their ears again. A large clawed hand rose up and out of the ground followed by a second before a head appeared with blood red eyes that glowed through the settling dust.

Its head turned toward Cardin and Velvet first before sweeping around and looking at the surprised group running right at it before it stopped on Jaune who froze as his eyes locked with the creature's. He got a very bad sensation in his gut and moved very fast tackling Pyrrha and as the creature's mouth opened wide and a cone of black electrical flames hit right where they had been standing. Sugar reacted fast swinging her katana several times at the ground causing debris, rocks and dirt to block its path. RDL and CFY were lucky as the cone hit and carried those debris into them burying them but protecting them from a direct hit. The pain and numb sensation that their bodies weren't responding was bad as they felt their aura still flickering to keep them conscious from the surprise attack. The ground and everywhere that was hit burned darkly as little bolts jumped spreading the fire further causing everyone to scatter.

The creature breathed again. The dark cone destroyed everything in its path, ripping up trees, the ground and part of the icewall before dissipating 150 feet away. The creature roared as an explosion hit it on top of its body courtesy of Cod and Snow who bombarded it from the Vulture.

The head disappeared below the mouth of the hole as the ground rumbled once more and a moving bump trailed forward from the hole as the creature burst out of the ground and launched itself at the Vulture its mouth wide open as more of the black energy came forth burning the air and narrowly missing the tail and left wing from the airship. Gun moved fast enough turning on the side thrusters cartwheeling them away as sparks from the cone leapt onto the ship setting some areas on fire.

Cod grabbed Thrawn and jumped while Snow tried to extinguish the flames. Gun was losing control of the ship and knew she was gonna burn, he flipped the autopilot on angling it towards the lake before unstrapping himself and grabbed ahold of Snow. She looked at him sadly as they leapt from the ship and watched the fire rapidly spread as the ship flew overhead and disappeared into the treeline, an explosion lit the sky up in the distance as _Lady Luck_ hit the lake and the fire reached the dust fuel.

The creature landed on six legs each ending in bone armor that looked razor sharp and scythe like. The legs extended upward ringed in bone armor with small plates here and there. The crab-like armored body of the creature was covered with sharp bones spikes jutting out along the sides. Along the back side red lines created scale patterns that trailed down its back on onto the armored tail that ended in a club-like bulge with seven spikes, three on each side and one long curved spike on the end. On its back as well there was an arm with three fingers that seemed to have immense flexibility as it shifted back and forth while the creature moved.

It had two thick black arms that were also ringed in white bone armor like the legs, each arm ended with a hand that had three curved talons that looked easily capable of ripping anything it got ahold of apart. And last, but not least, its head was extended outward from its armored neck, fangs bared and a red tongue that was dripping acidic saliva causing the foliage hit by it to sizzle and wilt away. It had three black spikes on its head with a black protrusion sticking out underneath with the all too familiar grimm mask that protected its face.

The red lines glowed a deep red as they swirled outward from its blood red eyes, its mouth wide open with two pincer like tusks that looked to be able to gore just about anything. It stood about 15 feet tall they estimated, its head extended another 10 feet to reach 25 feet up and it looked to be about 50 feet long from head to tail. It snarled viciously as it looked at the remaining people who were staring at it in shock. Its tail smashed into the ice wall next to it shattering it completely.

It raised its front two legs raising itself up higher and called out with a haunting tone over and over again. A moment passed before a small Grimm that looked like the bigger one with some minor differences crawled out of the hole and over to the large one. Once it got to its feet it laid down and remained there as more and more of the creatures began to emerge from the hole.

Jaune counted about 50 of them that had arrived as he heard the howl of Beowolves in the distance. This was getting very bad very fast and they needed to get out of there before things got worse. Viviane had watched that creature emerge and attack, she had never seen one like it before that was for sure and she didn't really want to stick around to find out what it was. When it leapt into the air and attacked the Vulture, she and Sean leapt from their hiding spot and collected Cardin and Velvet who were both burned and had Grimm blood all over them. Velvet has a small cut on her side that looked like a blade had nicked her.

Cardin on the other hand had a similar looking cut on his side but much deeper and more severe. It looked like his aura was nearly depleted as it was the only thing keeping him from bleeding out and dying. They moved him and Velvet up onto the ice platform that SPHR had been hiding on and started to bandage them both up. He weakly reached a hand over to Velvet's gripping it lightly as he passed out.

"Alright we need to move now: Faalador, Emberly, Harold and Lily along with us need to distract that creature, Ren, Nora, Dravius and RWBY go get those guys off of the ground, Sandual and Leroy get your brother and meet up with anyone from the airship." Jaune said as he motioned to everyone with his hand like a commander addressing his troops. He drew his sword and started running right at the large Grimm with everyone following his orders.

" _You're an idiot Jaune… but you're a brave idiot."_ He thought to himself as several closed vials flew over his head and exploded on the swarm they were running at. Harold laughed as he threw several more while Faalador started channeling his Semblance into his sword charging it up. Jaune and Pyrrha both got ready but then they heard the crackle of fire and saw several of the smaller creatures had fire spewing from their rear propelling themselves like torpedos right at them.

"What the…?" Jaune said as one crashed into his raised shield and his arm buckled but held under the force. Pyrrha forced the one that hit her down to the ground where she stabbed it. Lily impaled the one that came at her as it froze midair in ice and Emberly angled her shield as her brother swung his sword at it sending a line of lightning into the swarm. Several stopped moving and a horrendous scream rang through their ears as the large one reared up and all of the rest of the small ones exploded forward with a gout of fire behind them.

A pink heart shaped explosion crashed into the big one as Nora put her hammer away. Jaune looked to see RWBY, Ren, Nora and Dravius holding the other students and Sugar who were unconscious but not visibly badly injured. The oncoming wave of small creatures hit them and they fought them off and slowly stepped back. Jaune could see the large Grimm move forward out of the pink cloud unscathed and looking angry as it gave him the impression of a challenging gaze.

He swiped at one of the smaller ones catching a pincer and cutting it off as two more lunged for him. He backpedaled as Pyrrha and Lily came to his aid both intercepting one and shield bashed them knocking them down. Faalador and Emberly sent another lightning bolt out before they whistled and signaling that it was time to go. They turned and ran moving ridiculously fast despite both wearing full armor. Jaune was glad that at least no one else was in harm's way besides Pyrrha, Lily and himself.

Jaune kept at it as they moved farther away from the large Grimm that seemed intent on watching them rather than engaging. He was certain that had to be one of those older Grimm that was intelligent and far more dangerous. They managed to get to the exit part of the ice wall when they broke into a full out run as the small creatures gave chase for another minute before breaking off and returning back to the larger one.

They ran for 5 minutes before Jaune felt soreness taking was out of breath which was unusual for him as they stopped.

"What was that thing?!" He exclaimed as they stopped to catch their breath, they could no longer see anything but trees around them.

"I have no idea…" Lily said as she put her back to a tree and sat down. Pyrrha joined her as she checked herself for any wounds and only saw none. She looked at Jaune and saw that he had a few cuts and bruises and there was some blood on his leg. Jaune followed her eyes as he checked himself out and saw the other half of the pincer he had cut off was sticking in his leg. He hadn't even felt it as he realized there was a trail of blood behind him. He sat down and pulled the sharp limb from his thigh and winced as Pyrrha moved over to him and pulled out bandages.

"Jaune you're so reckless, you need to protect yourself better. I can't have you dying on me, okay?" She scolded him as she wrapped the wound.

He nodded in agreement and yet at the same time knew he would still have taken the hit if it meant she was safe.

"No worries Pyrrha, I'll make sure to block all of them so neither of us get hurt, ok?" He said as he felt his eyes grow heavy, the fatigue catching up with him. She hugged him and then helped him up as he tried to stand. She put his arm around her shoulder and steadied him and they went to move when Lily suddenly pushed them over.

"What is your problem, woman!" Pyrrha screamed out as she and Jaune toppled over onto the ground. She heard a woosh of air and a painful scream as she looked up to see Lily's shield melting onto the ground and what looked like acid burns on her arm. Holes in the ice that had formed around her were reforming as the tree they had been by toppled over. The creature raised its scythe like leg to its mouth licking it as droplets hit the ground and caused a putrid smell that reached Pyrrha's nose making her eyes burn. Jaune weakly shielded Pyrrha with his body as he took on a white glow. Lily crawled backwards as the creature brought its scythe leg down on her hitting the ice that shielded her before swinging a second time breaking it. The rest of the ice melted and plopped onto the ground in a puddle.

Lily braced for the hit as her body moved to the side and she felt herself land next to Pyrrha and Jaune's outstretched hand. A burst of light came from Jaune covering them all in white light. It felt like only a moment had passed before light faded and Pyrrha opened her eyes to see the creature was gone. Jaune was unconscious along with Lily. Pyrrha reached for her scroll and pushed the emergency button on the side as she felt all of her energy leave her and her world faded to black as well.

* * *

~Author Note~

Hey all first off want to say sorry for the delay, testing happened last few weeks so myself and my beta reader have been occupied with work or school. So hope the longer length makes up for it, Secondly I hope everyone is well, the soundtrack for S3 has been released so go get it everyone *^.^*. Thirdly Read and review love to hear from everyone about what they think as well as knowing you all enjoyed it.

Lastly Check my profile if youd like to get a visual of the grimm that i made, My lil baby~~, hope the description matches how it looks!

May the force be with you today~ Happy May 4th!


	5. Is everyone okay?

A Nightmare In Passing

Ozpin, Qrow and Jecht had just returned to his tower when Ozpin's scroll beeped and he was informed the teams had departed aboard _Lady Luck_. He sent a quick message to the Bullhead pilots and technicians to be ready for launch in ten minutes to restore the cameras after the operation began. He figured the teams would cause a distraction long enough so that they could get all feeds back online without any issues.

As the elevator doors opened, they stepped in and Jecht hummed a tune while Qrow was attached to his flask alternating between the two he carried on him as he let his gaze drift off towards Jecht. Ozpin just stood quietly staring forward as the doors opened and they all stepped into the office. Ozpin moved over to the table that held several cups and a fresh coffee pot that became ready as he reached for the handle. He poured himself a mug and turned to offer his guest some. Qrow surprisingly accepted the offer and filled a mug halfway up before he finished it with his flask.

Jecht just smiled as he took a seat in a chair and waited patiently for the two men to stop dawdling and delaying over this conversation. "Come boys, it's not like I'm here to deliver a death sentence or anything." He chuckled out as Ozpin sighed and sat down at his desk sipping his coffee for a moment before setting it down. Placing his fingers together in a thoughtful way he looked at Jecht.

"Well again thank you for answering my call so quickly, it has been too long since I've last seen you, my friend. I was hoping you could fill me in on the fake transcripts here and why they were necessary." He said as he pulled the papers out and laid them on the desk.

Jecht just smiled as he pulled out a cigar and lit it taking a puff, much to Ozpin's displeasure as he pressed a button and the windows on the left opened. Jecht just chuckled again as he extended his free hand out and pulled the papers to him before he smiled again looking at the offending documents.

"I take it you noticed them on arrival, Ozpin. I must say my work has slipped over the years, sadly." Jecht said cheerfully as he looked at the headmaster. "Then again, it was good enough to make it onto your desk and no one else noticed so job well done. The more pressing matter though, why would you knowingly fling my great-grandson off a cliff without his aura?" Jecht inquired his tone turning serious.

"It was part of initiation, but I'm more interested in the fact his aura wasn't unlocked by you or his parents before coming here." Ozpin replied back in an inquiring tone as he sipped his coffee again brushing concern aside for a moment.

"Because we couldn't, he is the first Arc in seven generations to inherit the mother's semblance without aura which means he will most likely have a lot more gifts and burdens should his aura be unlocked, not to mention the bonding between himself and whoever unlocked it." Jecht finished as he took a puff of his cigar. "That redhead I saw earlier, that was Pyrrha Nikos wasn't it? Is she the one who unlocked his aura?" He questioned as he stared lazily forward.

Ozpin nodded as he looked at the elderly man and then turned to Qrow who was watching something on his scroll. Qrow was busy watching his nieces in the Vulture flown by Gunny, and was amused to see Yang and Pyrrha both intently entranced by the Arc boy. "Looks like he takes after his father as well. So what's this bonding thing your talking about?" Qrow snickered as he turned his scroll around showing the other two men.

Jecht leaned in and smiled watching as his boy got up and jumped from the airship with his team in tow, Lily waited a moment before she slipped over the edge following her "wards".

"Only females can unlock a male Arc's aura and vice versa. For females it's not so much who does it but when, for males when their aura is unlocked they bond with that person and when they are near them they are at their strongest. Should that person travel far away or die then Arc men become fragile shells for a time, things get hard for them…" Jecht paused to puff his cigar again before continuing. "There was an incident with Jaune when he was younger and his mother, fearing for her only son's safety, decided to keep him from combat training. His father couldn't unlock his aura as a persuasion that he needed training so he did the best he could without undermining Heaven, you remember the temper she has. On the other hand, that boy wanted to be a huntsman so badly; I couldn't abandon my only great-grandson." Jecht explained finally shedding some light on Ozpin's concerns and questions.

"May I inquire about this incident you speak of or would I need to go through the Matriarch herself for that information?" Ozpin inquired as he glanced at Qrow's scroll again to see JNPR jumping from the ship. He took out his own scroll and pulled up the same feed before plugging it into his desk and a large screen displayed the interior of the ship and the remaining teams aboard.

"I'm surprised that old bucket is flying around, I remember when you were with that lot flying around causing trouble. 'Mount of times we got calls about _Lady Luck_ being impounded in Atlas or Vacuo because you or Gunny were drunk off yer heads. Summer, Heaven and Lily were the only things stopping you kids from destroying everything around you, bless their hearts. I miss the times when you all visited the summer home and spent vacation with us..." Jecht said as he gazed at the screen a tear forming from memories of when his grandson was in school with his friends.

"But yes yes, Jaune…" Jecht got back on track. "Well where to begin... His mother's unique gift was apparent in him, foresight which let him dream of the future. At first it was little things that would have led to non life threatening accidents but the dangers seemed to get worse as he grew older, the dreams becoming nightmares. Fate or destiny or whatever you wanna call it, if you even believe in that stuff seemed to not appreciate his good heart and persistent interference, and his mother had a nightmare; hadn't had one in years but she did, that he would die out in the world still so young as a huntsman…. So she decided he should stay home where she could protect him." Jecht finished looking forlorn as he stubbed his cigar.

"That didn't really answer my question though on the incident itself?" Ozpin noted as he stared at Jecht who looked confused.

"Thats weird, I thought I just told you about it." Jecht said as he raised the stubbed cigar to his mouth and tried to puff it. "Must be getting old, getting forgetful" he chuckled as he looked at Ozpin "Just ask her about it okay" he said as he pulled out his scroll typing something and then turned it towards Ozpin as the Arc symbol appeared on the screen.

A moment passed as the image of a beautiful woman appeared with long silver hair and deep blue eyes. She smiled as she stood in full view of the screen, arms clasped in front of her, the golden silk robes she wore flowing all around her. Heaven Arc was smiling as she addressed him.

"Hello Ozpin, it's been awhile hasn't it, almost 5 years if memory serves, since we last spoke." Heaven spoke softly and precise.

"My grandfather informed me a week ago that you have my son at your school and that you accepted fake transcripts allowing him entrance when you could have easily denied them…." She said as the smile turned into a neutral expression, Ozpin could feel the impending doom and dread come from the screen. He glanced at Jecht who smiled sadly and mouthed ' _I'm sorry'._

"YOU ALLOWED MY ONLY SON INTO YOUR ACADEMY WITH NO TRAINING, NO AURA, NO PROTECTION AS YOU FLUNG HIM OFF A CLIFF AND DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO SEND ME A CALL ASKING MY PERMISSION!" She screamed appearing to come out of the screen as Ozpin felt himself scoot back a inch in his chair. Qrow jumped at the unexpected noise spilling his coffee everywhere. "HOW DARE YOU, OZPIN! I HAVE HALF A MIND TO COME THERE MYSELF AND BEAT YOU INTO THE GROUND FOR THIS! LUCKY FOR YOU I HAVE DUTIES TO ATTEND SO I'M SENDING MY HUSBAND TO COLLECT OUR SON AND BRING HIM HOME! AND YOU JECHT, WHEN YOU RETURN WE WILL TALK ABOUT YOU GOING BEHIND MY BACK! WAS XAVIER IN ON IT? I SWEAR IF HE WAS….." She said as she turned and stormed out, opening a door with such force it shattered and disappeared, as she screamed the whole way through the hole she created. They could only make out 'Xavier' in all the words she was said. Jecht closed the scroll and sighed, feeling the end of his life come nearer and nearer with each passing second.

Ozpin let out a sigh of relief as he looked at Jecht who looked downcast and then at Qrow who was rapidly pushing the elevator button trying to make it come as fast as possible. "Really Qrow…." Ozpin said as he shook his head and sipped his coffee again.

"At least it's Xavier and not Heaven, I swear I don't know how we would survive if she came…" Jecht said as the elevator door opened to reveal a tall man with emerald green eyes, blonde hair and wearing a cloak that had the arc crest wrapped around it. His face was pale like all the blood had left it and he looked out of breath.

"If my wife calls, I'm not here yet." Xavier said as he stepped in and pushed the lockdown button on the elevator. "How is my son doing? I'm glad he's here honestly and once Heaven calms down I'm sure we can try and reason with her then." He said as he stood by the table.

"I heard her screaming so I only had time to grab my cloak and leave… do you, uh, have any spare uniforms or clothing up here?" He asked as he pulled the cloak tighter around him.

"Really boy, you should have the decency to at least get dressed before leaving your home regardless of whether your wife's yelling or not." Jecht said shaking his head and standing up he opened a suitcase and grabbed a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and hoodie tossing it to Xavier who proceeded to turn around and get dressed.

"I swear if my great-grandson inherited that from you I'll take you both into the arena for some retraining." Jecht grumbled as he sat back down pulling out a fresh cigar and lighting it. Ozpin just sighed as he sat back in his chair again and looked at the screen. All the teams had departed and it looked like Gunny was flying circuits around the area they were clearing. Pushing a button he pulled up seven more screens that showed Bullheads flying and landing in different areas clear of Grimm. He smiled as he watched his feeds of Emerald Forest turning back on as they got repaired/replaced.

The reports that came to his terminal as the repair teams moved from site to site all came back the same. _**Something had gotten on the cameras, like acid and had melted them**_ **.** He shook his head as he found it unlikely that rain could do that or that someone outside of his school knew where all the cameras were, let alone the fact that they hadn't caught anything on their screens before being destroyed. Something isn't right he thought as he turned his attention to the other screens. He accessed _Lady Luck_ radar and noted that two of the dots that were marked as Velvet and Cardin were not showing. The side panel bar showing everyone's status was green with **ACTIVE** still next to their names.

Ozpin reached to contact the ship when he heard Jaune Arc speaking through the ship's speakers, asking the very question. They waited a moment as they heard the conversation going on as different people were speaking. The underbelly camera of the Vulture showed the ground cave in and and people scattering a moment later as utter chaos happened. Several bars went yellow as Sugar, CFY and RDL both entered **Low Aura**.

"What is that?" Qrow asked as Jecht rose from his chair looking at the feed as whatever it was had just launched itself into the air and the video feed froze as it got close. The image of its face burned into the camera lense as a second later all of the other screens froze as well and the voices cut off and were replaced by static. Ozpin pressed a button on his scroll and then reached for his cane. A minute passed before the underbelly camera feed came back on showing black smoke billowing around it and the low altitude warning blaring as the ship skimmed the treetops and then the water before the sound of a explosion and the screen went black.

"That is a Scarab Overlord." Jecht said as he got up and leaned on his cane limping towards the elevator as everyone else moved past him, Xavier turned the elevator back on and the door opened, everyone climbing in. They rode down to the ground floor and and stepped out into the open air as a Bullhead touched down in front of them.

"Were to, Professor Ozpin?" The pilot said as the climbed in and settled into their seats.

"Emerald Forest, now." Ozpin responded as he hoped for his students safety. They rocketed away from the school quickly and passed the cliffs a few minutes later. "Call two Bullheads to wait at the cliff's base for any of the teams who arrive and get them back to the school." Ozpin told the pilot who nodded sending the orders out two the other Bullheads that were flying around. Two 'Affirmatives' were heard as they saw two Bullheads rise out of the trees moments later and move towards them. The smoke billowing up into the air marked where the downed ship was and in the distance the glint of sunlight reflecting off the two long walls of ice showed them the general area.

They flew overhead and saw the destruction that was caused by the black flames, looking down they didn't see any people or Grimm in the area and hovered in circles as they looked for anyone who was fighting or moving through the trees. Out in the distance they saw the Bullheads rising along the cliffside and picked up a radio call from some pilots saying they picked up ((fourteen)) people and that Dravius and two girls took off back into the forest, flying in that direction. The four men looked below searching for them, they didn't have to look far though as they saw trees falling over and several explosions light up the trees.

"I'll give you three guesses as to who that is down there." Qrow mused as they flew over the spot and spotted a white glow and several more explosions. Several more trees fell over as whatever they were fighting was charging away. They moved to intercept and Xavier and Qrow jumped from the Bullhead. Ozpin ordered for the pilot to land. " _I forgot my weapons at home….."_ Xavier thought as he plummeted down towards the fight...

Dravius had dealt with a lot of things in his life ranging from fighting monsters and people to upholding the law as a huntsman and managing the trials of being an adult. But when it came to a hysterical 17 year old girl upset, crying and freaking out he froze up unsure of what to do but sit idly by. Looking at Yang who was sitting over the unmoving form of Jaune, he thought back to 20 minutes earlier when things had taken a dangerous turn.

He had just removed his hand from his face as the bright blue light was fading away, but all he could see were spots as his eyes adjusted from the brightness. He could hear the girls he was looking after cheering for their success and was happy to know they weren't hurt. The mission complete, food was the next stop after this and then maybe some joyriding with Gun in _Lady Luck_ with his friends, just the usual post-job stuff.

He looked on as he noted that they were short twelve people when only ten should have been absent. It was a surprise he hadn't noticed sooner but given the fact they were being chased by a mob he understood how he missed that detail. He was about to tell the others that fact when the girl called Coco started freaking out over her missing team member. She was a jibbering mess when they heard the sound of approaching feet and turned to see JNPR and Lily arriving, the blonde boy's scroll was out and on call with Gun.

They could hear Viviane in the background talking to someone else saying they had eyes on the two approaching the walls and they looked injured. After hearing that, two of the groups bolted out into the open and ran towards the other side of the sprung trap. Dravius smiled with relief as he was glad they were mobile, when he heard on his left someone shout a warning. Suddenly the ground shifted and everything moved. The two missing students toppled over and the ground between them caved in swallowing the approaching group as well.

He grew worried as the dust began to settle and a dark shape was emerging from the hole. A large clawed hand and its twin rose up to reveal a large Grimm mask and head Dravius had never seen before. It rotated one way before turning and looking at the group, then at the people farther off before it opened its mouth and black flames came out, blasting into the first group and traveling to where the blonde boy and redhead had been standing. The boy apparently had fast reflexes and was lying on top of the girl several feet away from where they had been.

Dravius let a sigh escape his mouth before his eyes went wide and he felt a burning sensation in his foot as a second cone flew past him exploding into the icewall. He looked at the black flames that were spreading out and around where the fire burned darkly. He then felt the ground rumble as the creature fully emerged from the ground having launched itself into the air at the Vulture spewing more of those evil flames at it.

The boy gave orders as the whole situation felt surreal to Dravius. He ran forward with his girls not having paid much mind to Jaune's words. He got to where the kids had been buried and quickly cleared the dirt and debris away, picking up Yatsuhashi and Sky and placing them on his shoulders before he took off with the girls and two others in tow. They reached the edge of the wall turning back only to see the swarm that was around the unidentified Grimm. They bolted into the woods making their way to the cliffs as fast as possible. Ruby and Weiss were ahead with Coco and Fox. Blake had Sugar in her arms, Ren had grabbed Russel and Nora had Dove.

Yang was on the lookout for anyone in need of assistance while she scouted for any approaching Grimm to deal with. She could feel adrenaline rushing through her while she kept up behind Ruby and Weiss, The two girls were flying across the ground at lightning speed as they moved for several minutes arriving at the cliff base. There were two Bullheads waiting for them as they dropped off the unconscious students.

Yang couldn't be bothered when the Avery Trio arrived and all three hopped on the other Bullhead that creaked from Cuddles' weight. All Yang could think about was Jaune as she turned around and started back across the clearing to the forest edge when she felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Dravius and behind him stood Ruby who looked concerned as well. He said something she couldn't comprehend at the moment before he signaled for her and Ruby to follow and they took off while the scream of the Bullheads echoed behind them.

Ruby pulled out her scroll and could see several pings from her classmates scrolls moving towards the cliff save for Jaune and Pyrrha's which had just stopped moving. Ruby yelled and got in front leading the way as she headed right for them. Yang could feel a twist in her stomach as she felt an onslaught on dread at the thought of Jaune injured or worse. They made it to a clearing as Ruby checked her scroll again showing they were close when suddenly Jaune and Pyrrha's scrolls disappeared from her radar and she panicked. Using her semblance, she disappeared into the trees. Yang was right behind her used to chasing down her sister, not that she was ever successful but knew to follow the rose petals to find where she went. Dravius had a little less luck as he could not keep up with either of them and lagged behind but took note of the petals and put two and two together.

Yang and Ruby both saw a flash of light up ahead as a tree toppled over and the sound of a loud familiar shriek echoed. There was a white glow around Jaune, Pyrrha and Lily as the creature stood off to the side thrashing around wildly as it smashed into trees, boulders and underbrush. It shook its head left and right like it was blinded. It smashed its tail at them seeming to have no effect as Ruby and Yang opened up on it firing off shell after shell. It roared at them charging as they both leapt out of the way and Dravius brought his sword down hitting the hard shell on its back, sparks flew as the creature continued on into the trees severing a few with the spikes running along its side as it disappeared.

Dravius gave chase as it barreled through everything in its path, before it suddenly launched itself backwards and Dravius rolled to the side to avoid getting bowled over. As he looked up, he saw the creature looking at him as it opened its mouth. Yang came screaming through the trees punching it hard enough to turn its head as black flames burned off to his side. She felt herself lose momentum and fall to the ground as it reared back and tried to impale her but missed as rose petals fluttered under it and she was gone.

Several feet away, Ruby put her sister down and fired several rounds at its face as it raised an armored hand to block them. Dravius leapt at it his sword getting larger as he brought it down on the creature's back again. He saw the black arm on its back grab ahold of the blade as it hit the armor and yank it from his grip. The creature turned and leapt at him but he jumped to the side and rolled once more however the side of its tail crashed into him and he was sent sprawling backwards into a tree. Several explosive rounds hit it in the face again as Yang jumped back into the fight when the sound of a Bullhead overhead caught everyone's attention. Xavier and Qrow jumped down and the creature leapt away as Qrow slammed his scythe into the ground causing a crater where they landed..

It breathed the black flames once more as it ducked under a swipe from Ruby who flew over its head and it charged away from the new arrivals. It moved quickly with everyone in pursuit as it jumped forward pulling its legs up and disappeared into a large crevice that went way deeper than sunlight could reach.

The girls stopped next to it looking down as the sound of scraping sounded distant as everyone else stopped next to them and looked down into the darkness. Yang fired the last few rounds she had into the walls filling the hole with rocks. With a sigh of relief, all the adrenaline and energy left the girls and they sank to their knees. Ruby pulled her scroll out and could see the emergency beacon blinking from Pyrrha Nikos and every got up and quickly made their way back to them.

As they arrived they saw that all three were unconscious on the ground, Jaune was shielding Pyrrha and Lily with his body. They were relieved to see that they were mostly unharmed save for angry red marks on Lily's arm and the wound on Jaune's thigh that had begun to heal. Yang reach down scooping up Jaune and hugging him close to her as a few tears ran down her face. Ruby grabbed the weapons and armor while Dravius picked up Pyrrha. Xavier scooped up Lily and they headed back to the Bullhead that was waiting for them.

Ozpin sat down in his office with a pained expression on his face reading the reports and viewing the footage that was available. He addressed those that were awake informing them of the identity of the Grimm, the larger one known as a Scarab Overlord, the smaller ones were called Scarab Ravagers. They are known to exist in Dust mines and eat raw crystals which is why they have elemental attacks.

There hadn't been any recorded sightings of them for over 300 years in the Four Kingdoms and that troubled him since he was certain that they had all been hunted down and destroyed long ago. But if that wasn't the case he had a problem on his hands….

The look on the huntsmen and huntresses faces said it all as each one shared disbelief on the fight they had barely survived. The people in the room looked over at Jaune, Pyrrha and Lily who had managed to hold the creature off that had sprung out of the ground. It was a walking nightmare that had gotten worse with its apparent ability to spit out that black stuff that burned like hell, no one had expected that.

Half of them had come out unscathed from the mission once they had regrouped to assess the situation. Sugar was in a Dust chamber healing from the burn she suffered on her leg from the black fire, had it not been for the smother of dirt she would very well have been burned alive. The kids had fared better having avoided the flames thanks to her but were still low on aura and had to rest awhile. Lily's arm was another matter as the acid had melted down into the tissue but not the bone.

She encased her arm in ice before she passed out from the pain, solidifying the skin and tissue to slow potential further damage. She was also in a Dust chamber healing from the injury and was expected to be unable to see combat for a month or more. Jaune was out cold from aura depletion and was in a coma. Pyrrha had woken up and moved to his side and hadn't left it since they had been brought back.

CFVY and CRDL had recovered after a full night's rest save Velvet and Cardin who had severe burn damage as well as identical cuts in their sides that were healing slowly Cardin's more slowly since his was deeper than Velvet's. When Velvet woke up the first thing everyone wanted to know was what had happened to them and how they got separated as well as what happened to Cardin.

She recounted the story to best of her memory~

 _Cardin had just pulled her from the hole she had fallen into and they were walking towards the noise of howling Grimm that was moving away from them. They had followed the noise for about 10 minutes when they had been ambushed by Grimm they had never seen before._

She kept the fact that he had apologized to her and the little moment they shared to herself as she explained.

 _They had just moved over a creek and past several holes that should have served as a warning to them. As they pushed through the underbrush a curtain of fire enveloped them igniting the trees and shrubbery as well as burning them as they saw several Grimm propelling forward. A moment later the Grimm were scuttling towards them and attacking with their long pincers. Cardin jumped at them swinging without abandon as he batted the Ravagers away or using the explosive Dust to crack their armor._

 _Velvet jumped around kicking into one and sending it flying as she avoided the sharp pincers that were determined to gouge holes into her. Cardin had just slammed one against a tree when he heard a loud explosion and saw another Ravager flying at Velvet who had her back turned. He moved without thinking as he partially blocked its path, one of the sharp side spikes slicing through his armor and side, nicking Velvet as she turned towards his pained yell._

 _She froze for a moment before she extended her hand forward and a blue version of his mace appeared in her hands and she bashed the remaining two around into the ground. She sighed in relief, feeling the pain in her side as she moved to Cardin helping him to his feet and throwing his arm over her shoulder as they trudged forward. They weren't attacked by any other Grimm as they got in sight of the ice walls. When they managed to make it around the wall and into the opening the ground under their feet moved knocking them over. After that Velvet blacked out from exhaustion as the last thing she saw was a large clawed hand rise up out of the ground._

Lily was the next to wake three days after the incident. Her arm had healed mostly during the two days. There was still the angry red marks that the doctors guessed would go away after a few more weeks as long as she stayed out of the field. She of course wasn't very keen on that as she looked at the boy across from her in his own bed. She vaguely recalled what had happened as she tried to remember all the details. She had leaned against the tree and watched Pyrrha patch Jaune up, it was only because the of the silence that she went alert and saw the shadow loom over them.

She just reacted as the scythe leg went right through the tree and his her ice barrier and shield as acid splashed onto her arm and shield. The shield melted away and burned a ring of metal on her arm as the Scarab Overlord reared back and swiped again at her hitting the ice cracking it before it swiped again with acid melting through and barely missing her as she backpedaled and tripped. She felt her life flash before her eyes as a white glow on the corner of her vision and the Overlord standing over her to deliver a killing blow, all of a sudden she was jerked to the left and was under Jaune's arm and then everything went white and then she woke up here apparently a day later.

Jaune hadn't woken up yet and it had been four days, his wounds had healed and his aura had finally reached normal levels but still he did not wake. Pyrrha hadn't left his side since she woke up and had been lying in his bed curled up against him holding and hugging him. The only time she wasn't lying down was when Yang visited with food as she periodically checked in on Jaune to see if he was awake and to see how Pyrrha was doing, she did care for her friend as well and she wasn't going to let her starve.

"Hey Pyrrha, how is he doing today?" Yang asked as she set a pile of toast, bacon and a cup of juice down on the stand next to Jaune's bed.

"Better than yesterday, the wound on his leg has healed and is only pink now. His aura levels are back to normal, finally, I can't believe it took him 4 days to hit normal levels. He has a lot of aura…." Pyrrha said as she sat up and reached for the juice and a piece of toast.

Yang forced a smile as she sat down in the chair next to the bed and brushed some hair out of Jaune's face as she looked at him. "Us blondes got to stick together..." she mumbled as she gazed at him as she frowned and she felt her eyes water up.

"Yang, he will wake up; I know he will." Pyrrha said as she munched on some bacon and more toast. Yang nodded and they looked at each other for a moment before Yang stood up and hugged Pyrrha feeling her emotions starting to get the better of her. Pyrrha unsure of what to do just rubbed her back and gently returned the hug. She never really had given it any thought that Jaune and Yang had been close but she could see right now that he clearly meant something to Yang….

 _The Emerald Forest was burning in black flames as the Scarab Overlord rampaged through it heading towards Beacon. Hundreds Scarab Ravagers scuttled along the ground all around it as they seemed to be making a beeline for the cliffside. The Overlord reared back smashing its large black fist into the stone ripping rocks and stone out of the wall as it began to tear into the side of the shear wall. After a few moments it backed down having made a sizeable dent in the hard stone._

 _It breathed into the hole melting a tunnel of slag as the Ravagers scurried in burrowing into the softened rock, kicking it backwards, as the hole grew large forming a cave as they went about widening it. After minutes of work the Scarab scraped its way inside and rested inside the dark area as the black flames extinguished having nothing else to burn. The dark red glow of the Scarab Overlord's eyes bothered Jaune as he felt himself standing there looking at it._

 _He felt as if it was watching him as well and couldn't help a cold feeling travel up his spine as he entered the cave._

Then the dream changed

 _The creature was burrowing slowly through the stone towards Beacon, creating a tunnel straight up to the grounds followed by the many small Grimm behind it. Jaune felt himself being carried through the crumbling rock and occasional slag from the melting stone. He was certain that with enough time, uninterrupted, the creature would end up somewhere inside the school grounds with a swath of Grimm behind it._

 _He watched as it dug out into the open air just outside of the Beacon Gardens were it popped its head up and looked around. He watched it as it looked around and then dipped back below the surface vanishing from sight._

A moment later it felt like the dream had fast-forwarded

 _He saw Grimm charging into the cliffside and minutes later coming out of the hole while Beacon was on fire and burning. Their was a large floating structure in the air, many airships and even more flying Grimm all battling when suddenly what looked like a dragon appeared._

Jaune woke up with a start as he tried to sit up and felt a lot of weight on his body. He opened his eyes to find Pyrrha wrapped in his arms and Yang with her head resting on his shoulder as the two girls snoozed by his side. He looked out the window and the black sky indicated that it was night. The moon in the distance confirmed this to him as well. He felt sore all over but also relieved to see those close to him were not harmed. He let a sigh escape his mouth as he looked around and noticed that other beds had been used and were empty.

" _How many people got hurt and how long was I out for?"_ he thought to himself as he heard footsteps approaching the closed door and he felt himself flush up as he realized he had two girls practically in his bed. He attempted to disengage from Pyrrha but had no success as she mumbled cutely in her sleep and tightened her hold on him. The door opened and light filtered into the room. Jaune saw green eyes and blond hair as his father strode into the room with his scroll in hand.

The flash of light as a picture was taken was all it took for Jaune to realize he was doomed, so he laid back down and smiled.

"Hey Dad, sorry I haven't called…" Jaune said sheepishly as he looked at his father who was smiling back.

"It's alright, your great-grandfather explained everything to me and we decided in our best interest to let you explain to your mother." Xavier spoke softly as he grabbed a chair and sat down.

"How are you feeling? You've been out for five days, kiddo." Xavier asked as he looked at the monitor next to the bed.

"I've been better Father, my body hurts all over and I don't really remember what happened." Jaune said as he wiggled a bit getting comfortable.

"Yeah, well I'll fill you in on the details but you should be proud to have people like these two looking after you." He gestured to Pyrrha and Yang.

"Ms. Nikos hasn't left your side since she woke up and Ms. Xiao Long has been basically here just as long as her. I'm proud of you too, you made friends and know what to protect. One day you could marry one of them or maybe both." Xavier joked as he stood up and walked to the door.

"We will talk more later, okay? Sleep well, Son." He said as he was about to step out.

"Dad, when did you get here by the way?" Jaune asked as he tried to remain awake but it was a fruitless battle against his body and felt himself become overwhelmed by lethargy.

"Funny you should ask, actually I'll tell you in the morning and I'm sure you'll enjoy it." Xavier responded as he stepped out, closing the door behind him. He replayed the memory in his mind as he wanted to see Jaune's reaction when he told him.

 _Xavier Arc had been in his study signing documents and paperwork for the new Dust mine that had been discovered deeper in the mountain. He was bored, to say the least, as he got up and went to take a shower. He had stripped down to his briefs when he heard the sound of his wife yelling echoing throughout their home. He wasn't sure what was causing the commotion so he moved over to his desk grabbing his scroll when he heard 'XAVIER'._

" _Oh Shit…." he muttered as he grabbed his cloak and wrapped it around himself. He thought of Ozpin's tower and focused on being there instead of home (actually he would have preferred_ _ **anywhere**_ _other than his home at that moment) as the yelling got louder. He turned on the spot and disappeared, reappearing in front of the elevator doors as they were closing. He jumped in and rode up assuming someone wanted to go down and would be in for surprise, instead he was surprised as he heard his wife's voice again and rapidly started pushing the down button. He sighed as braced himself for the verbal confrontation as the doors dinged open and Qrow was right there trying to jump in. Ozpin and Jecht were sitting there bewildered by his presence as he stepped out of the elevator pushing Qrow into the room as the elevator doors closed behind them. He did a quick survey and upon not seeing his wife pushed the emergency lockdown button and then announced. "If my wife calls, I'm not here."_

* * *

 **Autor Note**

Just some quick words to thank my Beta Reader for being basically awesome and always ready to dig into the next chapter so that it can come out. I'm having a blast with writing this story, and hope everyone else is enjoying it as well. Please read and Review, I really like hearing back from you guys as your the ones who matter most. Hope everyones enjoying May! **MG out~~**


	6. Fire and Ice

A Nightmare in Passing

All the students who were and weren't from Beacon had heard about the success and failure of the mission the first years and CFVY had gone on with certified Huntsman and Huntresses. The question on every person's mind was the small details that involved a certain blonde and his friends when they had been alone at the mercy of this 'Scarab Overlord'. One person in particular wanted to know this privileged information and worked out a plan on how to get it from the blonde, personally, when she could catch him alone.

Cinder noted his absence over the few days that he was in the medical ward recovering. It was an unexplainable absence that slightly irked her as she sat moodily, moving her food around on her tray wishing she could just light the place up for some entertainment. She had kept watch of the coming and going of his allies or "friends" as people called each other and had noted that the Spartan girl had been absent as well as the blonde fighter of RWBY who only came into the cafeteria to get a large quantity of food before leaving with it.

It was fairly easy to come to the conclusion that Arc was the reason for the their absences, so she waited for almost a week before both Pyrrha and Yang arrived in the dining hall and sat down to eat their lunches. Jaune was still not among them and Cinder saw this as her opportunity to have him alone for a few minutes. She got up much to the surprise of Emerald and Mercury who got up as well only to sit down a second later as she waved them off.

She strolled out of the dining hall and quickly made her way over to the main building where the medical ward was located. It took her a few minutes to get there but once she did she noted the doors were closed and there was some noise coming from the other side. She looked around to make sure no one was around before she pressed her ear against the door to listen to what was being said.

"...ourse you will be fine my boy as I said, once you were in you could only go up. I believe in you as does your father. That's why we aren't taking you home, but we will have to call your mother and explain why you are staying or else I daresay she might make the trip herself." Jecht said, chuckling loudly.

"Now listen, when the time comes you may have to become the head of the house, son. Should I suddenly die or something drastic happen, you will need to step up and take my place. I'm sure you are aware that you only have four years left before you are to take someone's hand in marriage since you're a male Arc. I want you to have the freedom of choosing for yourself, I don't like the laws, but your mother will pick for you if you don't have someone in mind by then. If you don't decide in time we already know who will be chosen as your bride." Xavier spoke with a calm kindness that held that underlying authority.

Cinder's ears perked up with curiosity at this and a swell of spite filled her at the prospect of keeping Jaune as her pet just to break Pyrrha more when she heard him speak.

"Dad, Viridian is a dear friend but I can't marry her. Things always become chaotic when we're together and she gets very protective of me around other girls, besides my sisters, when they even try to talk to me or just say hi…." Jaune trailed off sadly as he reminisced about his childhood friend.

"True, but her jealousy has improved a little bit. I remember when she strung that girl up, Auburn if I recall, by her shoes for whispering to you during a field trip. Wasn't fun explaining that one to her father." Xavier mumbled, his eyes darting off to the side. "Nowadays though she talks a lot about you and has matured a lot from her youth. She should be able to get along with other women now…." Xavier trailed off hoping his words were convincing enough for his son to buy into.

"The daughters of Taiyang Xiao Long and Vance Nikos care about you deeply, it's clear as day to these old eyes. I remember when Xavier was as dense as you are now, but I suppose he only figured it out because of the walking damage he caused." Jecht said to Jaune as he sat there smiling.

"Grandfather..." Xavier said as he looked at his son with embarrassment, his youth and time at Beacon suddenly came back to him.

 _A young Xavier, back during his second year at Beacon, was walking down the hall towards Port's class an annoyed look on his face as he heard footfalls growing behind him. A moment later a girl with jet black hair, bright green eyes and wearing a blue dress was bent over breathing heavily as the girl beside her, wearing black shorts and black tee, smirked as she stood not even breaking a sweat._

 _"C'mon Lily, how are you supposed to keep up with us if you run out of breath racing me to Xavier." Heaven said as she looked at the man in question who averted his eyes, a redness forming on his cheeks._

 _"C'mon Heaven, Lily is a great fighter and if it wasn't for her we wouldn't have passed our end of year exams. Anyways, if I recall correctly you were really struggling to pass Professor Sprout's class."_

 _"Hey! You three will be late in 30 seconds if you all keep standing around like that instead of entering the classroom." A Faunus with horns and ash colored skin who had a booming voice stepped around the corner, where the classroom was, and smiled. Their teammate Ifrit Shade then disappeared back around the corner._

 _"Crap!" Xavier mumbled as he bolted around the corner followed by the two girls who both eyed each other and giggled._

 _"Next time I'll beat you to him, Heaven." Lily said as they stepped into the classroom._

 _"Huntsman, Huntresses," Professor Ports spoke brightly as his class began. He droned on about inconsequential things that made everyone sleepy. Halfway through the class however things lightened up._

 _"Psst! Ifrit, can you ignite Port's moustache?" Xavier whispered as he looked out of the corner of his eye at his best friend._

 _"Mmm, I'd have to sneeze to reach him. I think I can make it look like an accident. Psst! Lily, can you, uh, blow some ice this way? I'm really warm..." Ifrit muttered as he angled his nose towards Port._

 _Lily looked at him bewildered as she missed the first part and just nodded twitching a finger as an icy mist drifted in Ifrit's direction. The effect was instantaneous as a gout of flame shot out of Ifrit's nostrils and went right where Port was standing. The professor's eyes widened as he tried to move out of the way._

 _"No! Not the moustache again!" Port cried as he slapped his face repeatedly twisting left and right while the students exited the class post haste. This wasn't the first time Xavier and his posse played a practical joke on Professor Port and it certainly wouldn't be the last. A minute later, Port looked up at the empty room and then, with a tear forming in his eye over his lost moustache, he picked up his battle axe and marched up the stairs to the exit and made his way out to the combat arena._

 _As he arrived he could see the class sitting on the outside of the ring, save for Team Helix who had their weapons ready. He tapped his scroll as he stepped into the ring causing it to turn orange signaling combat was about to start._

 _"Alright today is the day, guys! We will win this duel and then we can skip class until next semester!" Xavier exclaimed as they all got ready for the beating they were sure to receive._

 _"You all know that you will be spending another semester with me doing extra courseworks until my moustache grows back when you lose!" Professor Port exclaimed as he readied the battle axe._

 _A moment later a bell chimed and everyone moved in sync as Port suddenly lept into the air above them and slashed downwards causing them to scatter. Xavier and Lily dove to the right while Heaven jumped to the left. Ifrit jumped back, avoiding the axe that shaved a few hairs off his head._

 _"Hahaah! Now I have taken a few of your hairs my young, proud huntsman." Professor Port exclaimed as he swung his axe again and again forcing Ifrit to stay on the defensive._

 _Xavier and Heaven jumped behind Port and took swings at him with their weapons when Lily jumped in on his other side, They all attacked from different spots but Port seemed to swing his axe blocking them all with ease leaving them in awe. He fired off a shot from the blunderbuss portion of his weapon as Xavier jumped back while Heaven launched herself up into the air. Lily on the other hand was caught off guard and set up a barrier of ice in front of her to protect herself. She expected the shot to hit her aura but she was surprised when she was picked up and moved by Xavier. The shot burst through the barrier of ice and would have hit her had Xavier not swooped in._

 _"Thaaa...anks" her voice was shaky as he set her down and got his sword ready. Heaven was annoyed as she landed next to them and sneered at Lily, who tried to ignore her constant pestering, as Ifrit got pinned and tagged out. There was a large crop of hair lying on the ground beside him in the shape of a moustache._

 _Port, smiling, turned and looked at the other three and started walking forward, his right arm in the air triumphantly, as the remaining trio looked for an escape route._

 _Xavier threw up a hand calling for surrender as Port jumped forward stopping mid-swing. He nodded, content with the retribution paid. The arena resounded with applause as Ozpin stepped into the area, sipping from his mug. He nodded at both Port and Xavier._

 _"I think that should be all for today, everyone go enjoy lunch." Ozpin said as he approached Port and handed him a letter with a moustache seal. Port chuckled as he attempted to rub his moustache only to remember it was no longer there. A moment of sadness washed over him as he dejectedly walked away from the arena with Ozpin and the class filing behind him._

 _Xavier walked over to Ifrit who was running his finger through his red hair feeling the missing chunk that was oddly shaped like a moustache. He accepted the hand up that Xavier extended to him and they both shared a laugh as they heard arguing behind them after the class chatter faded._

 _"If you were more skilled Xavier wouldn't have to save you all the time." Heaven spat as she glared at Lily who was clenching her fist and shaking violently. "This is why I don't think you should be considered a true Huntress. If you can't even defend yourself in a duel how are you supposed to fight Grimm by yourself or is Xavier going to hold your hand the entire way?" Heaven continued her voice growing louder as she was practically on the verge of shouting._

 _Xavier and Ifrit felt the chill in the air right away as Heaven continued on and both reacted quickly as a large pillar of ice formed over Heaven and sped down right at the unaware girl. Xavier tackled her out of the way while Ifrit ran to Lily to try and calm her down. Ice started covering the exterior and interior of the arena. Sharp spikes of ice began to sprout out of the ground like trees surrounding everyone. A wall of ice separated Ifrit from Lily and he began melting everything around him trying to get through to her._

 _Xavier scooped Heaven up and moved outside of the arena setting her down. He teleported back to Lily's side, pulling her forward into a hug. The embrace startled her and the production of ice stopped. He smiled as they appeared outside the arena next to Heaven who was looking at all the ice that was now starting to break and melt, steaming the summer air. Lily's eyes began to water as she turned away from everyone to hide her face._

 _Xavier looked at Heaven, who had an ashamed look on her face as she refused to meet his gaze. A loud sneeze was heard and a gout of flame melted a hole that led outside. Ifrit walked towards clearly angry. He stopped in front of Heaven._

 _"You need to start using that brain of yours or you will seriously get us all killed! Her Semblance is still manifesting and getting stronger. If she loses control every time you decide to make her mad Xavier might not be there to save you or calm her down or I won't be around to stop the ice or... gah! If you two can't sort out your feelings then we can't function as a team, got it?" Ifrit said as he stormed off back towards the academy._

 _Xavier just sighed, shaking his head as both girls looked at him sadly before they got up and silently walked back to the school following behind Ifrit, both in their own thoughts. Xavier watched them go deciding that he should keep his distance until things cooled off._

 _"Seems you have the same issues I did in my youth, boy." Jecht said as he walked out of the stands unnoticed by Xavier who jumped as his grandfather's unexpected appearance. They sized each other up for a moment before Xavier extended a hand out to Jecht who accepted it and then pulled him into a hug._

 _"It's good to see you again Xavier, it's been awhile..." Jecht said as he pulled his grandson into a headlock._

 _"Same to you, grandfather." Xavier said as he wriggled free and smiled._

 _"So who are the two pretty girls that are battling back and forth?" Jecht asked as he watched the girls in question walk into the dining hall and disappear from sight._

 _"Lily Ink and Heaven Blood, they are my teammates with Ifrit Shade who is my partner. We're all part of Team Helix." Xavier said as he sat down on the grass and looked up at the sky letting the breeze that was blowing carry his worries away._

 _Jecht sat down as well and joined his grandson in a silent moment letting the world brighten their day._

 _"How's Grandma Nami doing? It's surprising to see you here and not out in the garden with her growing everything under the sun." Xavier joked trying to determine what prompted this surprise visit._

 _"She's doing well, your grandmother. Plenty of strength in that body to carry on for the years to come, however on that note your father's condition hasn't improved and your mother is too busy to run everything while she tends to and heals him. Your grandmother is assisting to the best of her abilities to lessen the burden, but she spoke to me last night about you becoming the head of the Arc clan which means you have to pick a wife soon or she will pick one for you…" Jecht finished as his face finally broke into a sad smile at their dilemma._

 _"How long do I have….?" Xavier asked as he looked straight into his grandfather's eyes._

 _"One year after you graduate unless your father passes before then but we can hope he will recover soon so that you don't have to take on this responsibility." Jecht replied as he looked away into the sky. "A word of advice though if you decide to ask one of your teammates, whom I'm sure you've grown close to, secrets cause problems and women... well… they figure them out fast and read into them far more than they should sometimes so it's always best to be up front and honest about things so they know what they're getting into and don't resent you later." Jecht said standing up and offering a hand to his grandson._

 _"Let's head back. I need to inform Ozpin about this as well as the current situation…." Jecht said leading the way back, Xavier only nodding as he followed him back to the academy…._

"Jaune I know it's hard to have to think about that right now especially since you're only just turning 18 in a month but with everything happening in Remnant... better safe than sorry, right?"

"Yeah I guess… What happened between you and Lily, Dad?"

"I made a decision and kept a secret. She never forgave me to this day and it's been 24 years now. Secrets cause problems and women... well… they figure them out fast and read into them far more than they should sometimes so it's always best to be up front and honest about things so they know what they're getting into and don't resent you later, like Lily and me…." Xavier passed on his grandfather's advice to his son. "I'll tell you the full story when you're 18… if she doesn't first. Be mindful though an Arc never goes back on his word, ever. Speaking of which, Jaune, I need to go contact your mother. It's been a few days since I talked to her and well… haven't mentioned your condition or anything to her…..so yeah…. might not make it back from this call….." Xavier said as he stood up and put a hand on Jaune's shoulder. "Just take it a day at a time son, things will work out… I know they will. Jecht, this is partially your fault, by the way, so you're coming too." Xavier said as he walked past his grandfather who shrugged and got up as well.

"Take care, Jaune. Use that head and heart of yours and always improve your combat skills. If you do that then nothing will be able to topple your Arc lineage." Jecht said he stepped through the door after Xavier, the door closing behind the two men.

"Do you really think he will work up the courage to ask one or both of them to give up their futures as huntresses and spend their days as a ruler over a kingdom? It's a lot to ask of someone: their dreams, aspirations and ideas all get put on hold and then they are expected to put everyone else first." Xavier said as the door shut behind Jecht. Silence filled the area between them while Jecht gave it some thought.

"Maybe things will be different and the old ways will change or improve so we don't have so much sorrow disrupting what should be happy times." Jecht said as they began walking down the corridor.

"So are you some sort of royalty? Never would've guessed that from you Jaune Arc, what else are you hiding?" Cinder thought as she watched from a shadowy corner. As the men disappeared around the corner, Cinder stepped out of the shadow and slipped into the ward pulling the double doors closed behind her as she looked at the blonde boy still in his bed who was looking out the far window away from her.

"What is it now, Dad? Did you forget to include more details?" Jaune asked as he turned and then froze in surprise as Cinder approached him with a sexy yet intimidating smile on her face.

"Hello Jaune, hope you remember me from the time you knocked me over in the hall." She said as she slinked towards his bed. He seemed unable to form words as she looked at him like a wolf would a deer. He stuttered for a moment trying to regain his composure feeling completely defenseless without his armor or sword.

"Um yeah, I remember. Sorry again about that." He sputtered as he started to get his breathing under control. "Is there something I can help you with?" Jaune asked attempting to be polite as she stood next to him, her fingertips running along the edge of his bed.

"No, I just wanted to make sure your recovery was going well." Cinder said as she sat down in the chair Yang usually sat in and placed a hand on his arm. She got a weird feeling for a moment as the room seemed to brighten up a little like someone had pulled back a closed curtain letting a sliver of light slip through. She gazed at Jaune who was red in the face, the confusion and fear that she assumed was from her touching him was evident in his eyes as he felt his arm heat up for a moment before she removed her hand and everything returned to normal. Jaune looked away for a moment, the embarrassment making his face burn.

"So…. did you kill the Scarab Overlord?" Cinder asked deciding to take the direct route insteading of beating around the bush. Jaune looked at her and then shook his head and shifted his gaze downwards.

"No, it's still out there running around waiting to strike again." Jaune said. The shame filled look on his face slowly transformed into one of determination. "But it hurt my friends so it won't running around much longer once I find it." He finished his voice rising as he tried to get up and out of the bed.

"Shh, try not to make too much noise, Jaaauune…" she spoke drawing out his name in a way that sent a chill up his spine. Cinder put a hand on his chest pushing him back down and raised a finger to his lips as she stood up and grabbed a glass and the pitcher of water. She sashayed back to him handing him the water, sitting back down and looking at him.

"How did you survive this Scarab though? From what I hear you held it off all by yourself. Word is they found you shielding the great Pyrrha Nikos and a renowned Huntress called Lily the Unyielding." Cinder said exaggerating the story a bit to boost the young man's ego as she again placed a hand on his arm and lightly moved a finger tracing a small circle. That strange sensation came back to her once more as she looked at him feeling calm and at ease. It bothered her that she wasn't tense or reflexively coiled to escape if someone were to enter the room.

Jaune on the other hand felt a conflict of emotions. This woman, Cinder, whoever she was, had hurt Pyrrha in his nightmare. He didn't know why or for that matter how everything fell apart to reach that end. He also felt a strange presence about her when she touched him, like there was her and then there was something else that was evil, dark and tainted. It was the same feeling he got from the Scarab Overlord. Here she was right next to him talking to him unaware that that future was creeping closer to them…..

"I don't know honestly, I have no idea at all and it's frustrating because whatever I did what if it doesn't work next time we're in serious trouble…" Jaune said not paying attention to the changing demeanor of the girl next to him. "Honestly the rumors are probably mixed up. I bet it was Pyrrha shielding me and I was just cowering, completely useless."

Cinder leaned forward placing her hand under his chin tilting his head up towards her. A shiver ran up his spine as the evil presence felt stronger and more grimm like as she looked him dead in the eye.

"I know there's more to it than that Jaune, you're special and have a power far stronger than everyone else." Cinder said forcefully as her eyes seemed to glow a bit.

They both felt a chill in the air as a bluish white hand appeared on Cinder's arm and pulled it away from Jaune who looked up to see Lily standing there with icy eyes. Cinder's eyes flared and simmered like they were about to ignite into flames as she and Lily looked at each other. Some steam rose up from where they were connected before Lily released her grip and Cinder smirked triumphantly.

She stood up abruptly looking at him slyly as she headed towards the door swaying her hips seductively as she looked back at him with a foxy smile. She winked flipping her hair around as she slipped through the door and disappeared. The click of her heels fading quickly into the distance. Lily stood glaring at the departing woman as she watched Cinder retreat from the room.

Jaune released a breath he wasn't aware he was even holding as his body felt cold and clammy. He sat there unsure of what to do as many thoughts swirled in his mind. "She's going to hurt Pyrrha but I don't even know why and how. What can I do that can fix this so no one gets hurt or worse?" He sat there quietly unsure of what to do as he felt another hand on his arm that was really, really cold. He looked at Lily who was staring at him and thanked her for her sudden appearance.

She looked surprised by his thanks and looked away with a tinge of red on her face. She removed removing her hand from his arm and then quietly took a seat and began to idly stare out the window. Jaune was at a complete loss as to what to say so he stayed silent as well, letting his thoughts stray.

"You really don't remember me, do you?" Lily stated as she continued looking out the window.

"I'm sorry I don't Ms. Ink….." Jaune started before getting cut off by Lily.

"Lily, just call me Lily, Jaune."

"Lily then…. um thanks, and yeah, did you, um, grow up with my father or something because they seem to know you. Even my great-grandfather who I never knew to travel or leave home…." Jaune said as he looked at her.

She smiled sadly as she glanced at him leaning forward. She looked him in the eyes and he felt a different chill run through his body. There was a look of hurt and pain in her eyes unlike anything he had seen before in anyone. She got up and started walking away.

"Wait!..." Jaune called to her. She turned and looked right at him. He felt his mouth go dry as she waited for him to speak. The silence between them grew and made the situation only more awkward with every passing second. He tried to speak but could not find the words and finally she turned away and kept walking until she disappeared out the doors. They swung shut behind her. Jaune hung his head as he berated himself on being useless. He sat there as the time ticked past, thinking to himself unsure of what he should do now. "Maybe I should just go home? I could take Pyrrha with me and keep her safe. Although she would hate me for running away but that seems to be all I'm good for anyways." Jaune thought. He felt his eyes grow heavy and exhaustion started to roll over him again. A moment later his head hit the pillow and sleep claimed him once more.

Elsewhere, Roman was standing over a table as his cigar lit up the dark room. The door behind him opened and a girl with pink and brown hair walked in humming. She looked at Roman and then fluttered around to his side. She lightly tapped him on the shoulder as she peeked at the map that he was currently leaning over.

"Hmm..." He grumbled as he glanced at her and then let a rare, genuine smile grace his face as she extended an ice cream cone to him. He looked at her again, this time taking in the features of the girl's face, while she was devouring the ice cream. He was reminded of the fortunate or unfortunate circumstances (depending on how you view it) that he had led to his meeting with Neo and how she subsequently came to be in his employment. It was another rare thing for him to show concern for the well being of others besides himself.

He had taken her with him when she was very young. The fall out between himself and his old friends had left its scar and because of it Neo had ended up in his care. Her presence made sure that old wound never closed. He sometimes wished he had gone back and fixed things instead of using his talents for crime or, more specifically, to avoid the current pyromaniac he was stuck working with for the time being. Despite his desire to amend the situation he knew deep down that his pride would never have let him be able to resolve stuff.

"Neo, why do you stick around with me these days? You're smart and know that every step we take brings us down a road that we can't escape from freely." Roman sighed, taking a puff off his cigar letting the smoke roll away from him up into the air. Neo looked at him inquisitively before putting a fist on top of his head and lightly tapping him. She blinked twice and smiled mouthing (Because you took care of me) he sighed again, shaking his head at her simple answer, before looking back at the map in front of him. It had a circle around every dust shop within the kingdom, a slash through every police station and an X marking all staging areas for future operations that he would eventually have to spend time coordinating between thugs and the White Fang group that he was put in charge of.

"I wonder what I have to do to get out of this side gig….." he thought as Neo picked up her umbrella and spun it around, smiling. Roman felt a tap on his shoulder and looked at Neo smiling and holding out her hand. He just looked at her as she gestured for him to take her hand again. He shrugged and took it and then found himself outside of an ice cream shop. "You know you could have just asked for more money…" Roman said as he looked at Neo.

She just shrugged and then smiled in a not so kind way before walking into the store with her umbrella pointed at the shop owner. Roman sighed again following her as they proceeded to acquire more ice cream via stealing it.

Ozpin, Jecht and Xavier sat quietly as they waited for their guest to show up. They sipped on their respective drinks as the Ding of the elevator signaled the arrival of someone. The door opened to reveal Qrow, Gunny and a man wearing a black tweed suit and sporting a monocle.

"Hello everyone and welcome. Please have a seat so we can begin this meeting." Ozpin said as he greeted the newcomers with a warm handshake and then sat down at his desk, a smile on his face.

"As you all know, the Vytal Festival is starting in a few months and a lot of students are arriving to reside here in Vale and prepare for it. Our job obviously with the unexpected arrival of James Ironwood is to ensure the safety of each and every person in Vale while the festival is underway. Prior to that however is the Swords Festival in a few weeks." Ozpin stated as everyone else sat down in chairs and paying close attention to the current Beacon Headmaster.

"The contenders for Masters of the Sword are converging in Vale for the Tournament in two months and then we follow up with the Vytal Festival a few months after that." Ozpin said as he pushed a button on his desk and a image of a stadium appeared with a gladiator looking pit in the center at the bottom. As he zoomed out they all saw that the stadium was in the air.

Jecht was the first to speak up as he looked at the image and saw only the Vytal Coliseum was in the air. "So where is the Sword Festival taking place? You know we don't use the Vytal Coliseum for anything else, as that would be against the peace treaty the kingdoms agreed upon."

"Of course we will not be hosting the event in the Vytal Coliseum. We will be hosting it on the ground stadium below the Vytal Coliseum. All the security will be there already. We will just be taking advantage of our unexpected guests on the ground to maintain Grimm activity and to assist in any unexpected developments." Ozpin said with a smile as he pushed another button and the image zoomed down to ground level showing a stadium and landing platform directly below the Coliseum current position.

There was a large trench that encircled the entire area and a secondary trench filled with water. The stadium itself was fairly large and could fit 60% of what the coliseum above could hold.

"I expect that most participants and challengers will be present as well as the family members of each swordsman, which reminds me, the Obsidian Sword I heard has a lot of active challengers this year. Will that be a problem?" Ozpin asked as he sat back in his chair and turned the projection off.

"Shouldn't be. Just means Heidi has her work cut out for her this year. She is a very promising swordmaiden and I'm sure she is going to try to climb up the ranks and challenge Bronzewing this year." Xavier said as he got up and headed toward the elevator. "Gentlemen as always, it's a pleasure to meet with you all but I wish to check on my son and make sure he hasn't injured himself anymore while in bed. Have a great afternoon." He pushed the button, heard the Ding of elevator and stepped in only to have the door halt abruptly as a cane stopped the door from closing.

"Excuse me, my Lord, before you go I have to deliver your clothing and sword as per the Matriarch's request." The man with the monocle spoke gravely as he waited for Xavier to step out of the elevator. Xavier sighed as he stepped back out and waited. The man opened up his suitcase and pulled out a Gold Longsword as well as armor similar to Jaune's. The Arc crest was emblazoned on the chestplate and seemed to emit a golden light as it glowed in the sunlight.

"Thank you Marcus, I guess I kinda need these things….." Xavier said as he started donning his gear.

"Of course sire, There is also a letter from your wife, a change of clothes, curry and a gift for your son from his mother as well. She requested you read the letter upon delivery so please take a moment to read it so you don't bring her wrath down upon us."

In the infirmary, Jaune sighed as he woke up from his sleep. He was feeling drained and troubled by everything that had happened earlier. As his eyes focused on the room he saw his father sitting in his armor next to his bedside table. Qrow and Ozpin were off to the side whispering quietly about something he couldn't quite hear. He looked to the other side and saw Gunny the pilot with his great-grandfather talking about Vale life. Marcus was coming over with a glass of water and some food…. "Wait, Marcus is here?" Jaune thought as he slowly sat up to see the family caretaker set the tray down and look at him with a smile on his face.

"How are you feeling, Jaune? It's been a little while since I last saw you." Marcus said as he sat gently on the side of the bed and looked at Jaune.

"I've been well." Jaune said sheepishly as he felt a twinge of guilt run through him at not saying bye to his friend when he ran away from home to join Beacon.

"I'm sorry I left without any words, Marcus. It must've been dull without me around." Jaune said half jokingly as he thought back to his sisters and how much trouble and excitement they caused on a daily basis.

"It's all forgiven. I'm just glad you're well and following your dream." Marcus said as he got up and grabbed a small box with gold and white wrapping paper on it.

"Your mother has sent a gift to you, Mr. Arc. She hopes you will make good use of it in the coming years and will have a bright future." Marcus finished as he set it down on the stand next to the bed. Jaune went to reach for it when a cough to his right drew his attention to his father who was holding a letter in his hand. He had a serious expression on his face as they made eye contact and Jaune got a sense of whatever this gift contained was important.

"Jaune, don't open that box until your birthday, understand?" Xavier spoke in a commanding voice as he closed the letter and re-sealed it with the Arc crest that Marcus provided. His face softening, Xavier stood up and set the letter down on the stand next to the box and patted his son's shoulder. "Now tell me, how has school been since you arrived?" Xavier said as he shot a look at Ozpin, who seemed to be intently staring in another direction from them. Jaune smiled as he turned to his dad and started to recount his time at Beacon.

Pyrrha and Yang could hear talking as they neared the room, excitement was evident on their faces as they glanced at each other and then looked away both blushing embarrassingly at the giddy schoolgirl-like mood they were both in. They stopped at the door and waited a moment as the laughter from those on the other side of the door filled the hallway. They pushed the door open and walked in seeing Jaune surrounded by some familiar and unfamiliar faces. He turned and flashed a brilliant smile at them as they neared, causing them to both giggle again.

The adults in the room glanced at each other then took a quick look at Jaune before nodding.

"Hey Qrow, you up for a spar in the courtyard for old times?" Xavier asked as he brushed his hand over the sword's handle feeling the energy run through him like back in the day. Qrow nodded as the two got up and headed out the door. Xavier turned and waved. "We'll talk later, ok, son?" Xavier said as he disappeared around the corner. Jaune just nodded.

Ozpin spoke to the other gentlemen, offering them refreshments once they returned to the tower for the afternoon. Jecht and Gunny both agreed immediately while the old man smiled and nodded. They exited, leaving the room to Jaune, Pyrrha and Yang, who both approached and hugged him before sitting down on either side of the bed.

"Hey Jaune! Yang and I were talking about the upcoming dance that Weiss and Yang are planning. It sounds like so much fun." Pyrrha said as she sat down on the bed next to him and snuggled up against him. He smiled as he put an arm around her and pulled her closer to himself as he settled back into the bed.

"Yeah that sounds fun." Jaune said as he remembered something and looked at Yang who shared a similar look. It clicked in her head that they had signed up to be dance partners next weekend at the Tournament at Raptorz. She felt an excited, gleeful feeling rise up in her as she began to plan what to wear before a second thought entered her head, "Will Jaune still go with me?" She thought as she looked at him again.

"So how are you feeling anyways, Vomit-boy? You gave us quite a scare with your little stunt in the forest a few days ago. Everyone's been talking about it." Yang said as she pulled out her scroll and showed the inbox with over a hundred emails asking about what happened. Pyrrha nodded as well, sharing her scroll with him as well and he saw almost a thousand similar questioning emails. He didn't even want to check his scroll as he laid back sighed. Pyrrha looked at him again and smiled before she got up and stretched her legs.

"I'll be back in a sec, Jaune, okay? Don't disappear." Pyrrha said as she headed out to go get their book bags to collect all the work he had missed. Jaune watched her walk out of the room, his eyes tracing her every step as she stepped out. Yang just laughed as she waved goodbye and then started flipping through her scroll deleting the questioning emails.

"So Vomit-boy, we still on for Raptorz next weekend?" She asked trying to be nonchalant about it as she glanced sideways to see his reaction. He just smiled at her and nodded as he sat up a little bit and grabbed a cup of water sipping on it.

"An Arc never goes back on his word. I'll be there for sure." Jaune said as he settled back in. The rest of the evening went by as they chatted about random things. He then got sucked into homework when Pyrrha returned with his backpack full of missed reports and assignments. Yang dashed out at that point to avoid having to suffer having to look at homework when she didn't have to, leaving the two alone.

"Don't worry Jaune, I'll always help you to be the best you can be!" Pyrrha said cheerfully as she kissed him every time he got an answer correct. "Let's make this a year to remember." She pulled out another book and they started on the dreaded Port's paperwork.

* * *

~~Author Note~~

Hey All! so first and foremost I want to apologize for the heavy unexpected delay that hit this chapter. Summer I thought I would be simply free of all my duties but it turned out I got booked twice which luckily worked out as the places I work for were in the same building this year. With that however I was basicly bogged down in work. So Sorry, My expected timetable to get a chapter up will be about a week-2 weeks. But I promise to not make you all wait that long again!~

Secondly I would like to shout out thanks to my awesome Beta Reader and editor ~Naru-Teen Titan~ for making sure i didnt leave anything behind and also got it done finally! Love you all and see you in CH 7!

Bonus Round!~ I had a fun thought yesterday while watching Pokemon from the start: Who do you think would be the first RWBY character to catch a Legendary Pokemon?

~~~MG~~~


	7. Fun While it Lasted

Quick Note before we jump into this, You may want to have Youtube up to get totally into some of the scenes in the chapter:D) Sorry for the epic delay but we are back and powering forward 3

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A Nightmare in Passing

The moon glowed brightly, the shattered parts of it remaining ever so still in orbit with the larger mass, as the weekend bustle of the nightlife in the Kingdom of Vale began to flourish. The streets were littered with teenagers and young adults who were roaming around looking for the next exciting club to hang out at, a movie to watch, chilling with friends or in the case of Jaune and Yang who were speeding down the highway into town, avoiding the local law enforcement.

"Yang! I really think you should slow down!" Jaune yelled as he wrapped his arms tighter around her waist hanging on for dear life as they took a sharp turn and accelerated, losing the two officers who missed the turn.

"C'mon Jaune, you got to live at least a little bit on the wild side otherwise you will be boring like Weiss!" Yang cried out over the wind as she took another turn and slowed down merging with the main traffic that was entering the city.

Jaune smiled as they turned again and entered the port district of Vale and spent a few minutes navigating the back alley ways and side roads to reach their destination. Raptorz was full of life as they pulled up in front of the club. They had first encountered each other at the club a little bit after the start of their time at Beacon. Jaune remembered the first time he had come here as well as the day that Yang had shown up and caught him out and about.

"You know Yang, it's been several months now that I think about it…. Do you think we should tell everyone about this place?" Jaune asked as he dismounted and held out his hand like a gentlemen to Yang who smirked but took it anyways.

"Maybe after tonight, I would hate for them to cramp my style **,** I have a reputation to uphold, you know. in the nightlife" Yang said with a laugh as she walked in with Jaune, the music vibrated the air as they stepped out onto the dance floor and saw the crowd of people dancing and swaying to the music throughout the club. The DJ on the second floor waved to Jaune and Yang as they made their way over to the bar on the far side and then climbed up to the overwatch and greeted the guy with his rainbow chef's hat.

"It really is packed tonight. Everyone here for the dance off, Segal?" Jaune asked as he smiled at one of the first friends he made since he had come to Vale.

"Yeah man, they are all here to put your mad dancing skills to shame or rather try horribly to." Segal replied laughing as they watched the people below them.

"So this lady here your dance partner, date, or what? I've seen you both in together dancing a few times here and there but normally you don't arrive together…." Segal said as he eyed Yang up and down. She smiled and introduced herself as she rolled her eyes at his wandering eyes.

"Name's Yang and I'm Jaune's date and dance partner for the night!" She said cheerfully as she felt her cheeks flush at the idea of being his date.

Jaune just smiled feeling slightly embarrassed at the concept and unsure if he should bother to try and correct what she said but decided to at least give her this night. They chatted for a minute more before they bid the DJ goodbye and walked down to the first floor again, ordered some drinks, and sized the crowed up determining who might give them a challenge as they were both pretty good dancers in their own right.

About 5 minutes later they received their drinks when suddenly Jaune choked on his drink causing Yang to look over at him then follow his gaze to the familiar blue hair of four Beacon students who were on the far side of the room.

Sabrina and Xarik were dancing together while Jaime was chilling off to the side clapping her hands to the beat of the music a large smile on her face. Sean was wrapped up with a brunette who they didn't recognize and assumed was a patron of the club. The two blondes watched Sapphire for about 10 minutes surprised they didn't notice the blue haired group when they were up on the balcony but the alcove they were under may have had a play in that.

"Think they are here for the tournament as well?" Jaune asked Yang signaling for her to follow him as he got up and began to make his way over to them. Yang was slightly annoyed at the prospect of other students being here but figured it was just a fluke and not someone following them.

When Jaune and Yang almost reached SPHR, Sean happened to notice the long blonde hair and the look on his face said it all, he tensed up and grimaced in shock. He was very surprised and afraid at that moment. Jaime took note of his face and looked, almost jumping out of her seat, as she saw both Jaune and Yang right next to her. Her reaction caused Sabrina and Xarik to look over and freeze as they to noticed the familiar blondes.

"You're not here to turn us in are you….?" Xarik said quietly as she and Sabrina moved over to the blondes.

"We never saw any rules saying we couldn't leave the school when we wanted….." Sabrina said with a nervous voice as Jaune and Yang looked at each other and burst out laughing as they reassured them that they were in the clear. The looks of confusion on their face reassured them.

"Nah, we're here for the dance off tonight. We just were surprised to see others here." Jaune said as he looked at them. The brunette nudged Sean and pointed to the bar. She mimicked taking a drink before he nodded and she disappeared into the crowd. Everyone turned back and started talking again as Jaune sidled up to Sean.

"New girlfriend or friend?" Jaune asked politely as he tried to get to know the kid.

"Friend, she has these wicked eyes, dude, that change colors." He said excitedly as he waited for her to return with drinks, Jaune caught a glimpse of her when she came back with two different drinks giving him a smirk as she met his gaze him briefly.

Jaune and Yang chatted for a few minutes more when the lights dimmed down and a spotlight lit up the DJ who had a microphone in his hands and was standing precariously against the banister.

"Ladies and Gentlemen tonight's dance off is about to begin. All partners please come to the center of the room. Everyone else please back up onto the side."

As the room cleared out and most of the patrons backed off, Jaune and Yang stepped forward with 11 other pairs who were smiling and ecstatic for the competition. A surprised yelp caught everyone's attention as Sabrina pushed Xarik into the opening floor and followed in with a big smile on her face.

"Alright so we got 12 pairs for this evening's Raptorz Dance Off!" Segal announced as everyone clapped.

"So tonight we will have 3 dances per pair to be judged on and I will give a median score based on all 3! So with that said let's draw our 3 categories….." His voice trailed off as he reached into a bucket on the table and pulled out three slips of papers.

"The first dance will be a freestyle." Segal announced setting down the first slip.

Jaune and Yang smiled at this as they were both excellent dancers with plenty of signature moves. had their own respective moves that weren't too bad.

"The second dance will be a Line dance with all participants being graded together; how do you like that surprise twist my fellow night thrivers?" Everyone around the edges cheered and laughed while those in the ring gave each other ominous looks of warning. Jaune and Yang looked at each other before they burst out laughing as well.

"And finally! Our final dance will be... drum roll please…" Everyone drummed the hands on various objects causing the beat to reverberate through the air, "A slow dance, any style." Segal finished, looking smug, as Yang and Jaunes faces both briefly turned red at the prospect of a slow dance with the other.

Yang's mind went miles a minute as she envisioned the reward she was getting for dragging Jaune out and couldn't hold back the smile on her face as her hair started to flicker out of sheer excitement.

Sabrina and Xarik were giggling up a storm as they moved over to the table to put down their two song request and then proceeded to move away as others joined the queue. As the line dwindled down, Yang was having a hard time thinking of a song to dance to while Jaune was in the same boat. They started to both grow nervous as the line got shorter and shorter, eyeing each other with dumbfounded looks as it finally came to them.

"So uhh… yeah, How about um…. " Jaune stuttered as he tried really hard to think of something but his mind was drawing a complete blank as Yang started to turn red. People began to snicker at the two of them.

"Oh, I know…" She put down two songs and Jaune eyed them quickly before Yang dragged him back to where they had been standing just before the competition began.

'Gold'

'All Our Days'

He couldn't recall ever hearing them before but figured she did have a good taste in music at least.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen let's kick this night off with a round of applause for our first contenders, Give it up for Drew and Kim who are dancing to "Into the Night."

The crowd cheered as the first two dancers, a fairly tall man, wearing all black and a woman with a sparkling silver dress, began their routine as the music thrummed through the entire building. Jaune and Yang smiled at one another as they felt the excitement and the building energy from everyone around them.

The first pair danced really well. They spun, twirled and were generally in sync with each other as the first song finished. As the last few notes ended, everyone began cheering loudly while the two bowed and waved before rejoining the circle.

The next pair that went forward were two girls both wearing short purple dresses that clung to their frames tightly. They were giggling up a storm as they approached the center of the dance floor. They clasped hands as the music started. One of the girls had fox ears on top of her head, while the other was clearly human. The fox girl led the dance as the two began waltzing across the dance floor in time to the song playing. The crowd hooted and cheered throughout their routine.

The cheers from the crowd reached a frenzy when the girls finished their dance. Next up was a Faunus couple that performed some acrobatics, then two guys stepped up together and did a exemplary back and forth dance freezing as the other moved. Next up was Yang and Jaune followed by Sabrina and Xarik who stood next to them, thumbs up and cheering them on.

Jaune was smiling but also feeling nervous and shy as he and Yang walked out onto the center of the dance floor. All eyes were on them as the music started and Yang began to dance in a swaying rhythm to the beat that Jaune found tantalizing as he began to move in sync mirroring her moves perfectly. When the lyrics began Yang looked directly into his eyes and began singing along. (Gold by Casey Williams)

 _Dream of anything_

 _I'll make it all come true._

 _Everything you need_

 _Is all I have for you._

 _I'm forever_

 _Always by your side._

 _Whenever you need a friend_

 _I'm never far behind._

 _If the stars all fall_

 _When there's no more light_

 _And the moon should crumble_

 _It will be alright._

Jaune could feel a blush form on his face as he got closer to Yang, dancing right in front of her. He reached out a hand and twirled her around. They fell into a fast rotation, sliding left and right and spinning each other as the chorus hit.

 _Don't you worry about the dark_

 _I will light up the night with the love in my heart._

 _I will burn like the sun_

 _I will keep you safe and warm._

 _Like the smell of a rose on a summer's day_

 _I will be there to take all your fears away._

 _With a touch of my hand_

 _I will turn your life to….._

 _GOLD!_

 _With a touch of my hand_

 _I will turn your life to gold._

 _Let's have everything_

 _Nothing we cannot do_

 _Every heart just beaming._

 _Every sky turns blue._

 _I'm so happy_

 _Just to have you here_

 _Smiles bringing sunshine_

 _And worries disappear._

 _When the days turn dark_

 _And you start to fall_

 _I will pick you up and_

 _We will fix it all_

 _Don't you worry about the dark_

 _I will light up the night with the love in my heart._

 _I will burn like the sun_

 _I will keep you safe and warm._

 _Like the smell of a rose on a summer's day_

 _I will be there to take all your fears away._

 _With a touch of my hand_

 _I will turn your life to….._

 _Gold…._

 _Gold…._

Jaune suddenly felt a chill run up his spine when Yang pulled him into a embrace and held him closely. He could see her still looking right at him as she sang every word, her eyes glistening with unshed tears as she held him tightly. The noise in the room faded into the background and became unnoticeable. It felt like it was only the two of them in the room.

 _Don't worry, I got you_

 _Nothing will ever harm you_

 _Im close by, I'll stay here_

 _Through all things, I will be near_

 _Close your eyes_

 _Don't you cry_

 _Love surrounds you_

 _In time you'll fly_

 _Don't you worry about the dark (Don't you worry)_

 _I will light up the night with the love in my heart._

 _I will burn like the sun (I will burn)_

 _I will keep you safe and warm. (Keep you safe and warm)_

 _Like the smell of a rose on a summer's day_

 _I will be there to take all your fears away._

 _With a touch of my hand_

 _I will turn your life to….._

 _GO~LD!_

 _With a touch of my hand_

 _I will turn your life to gold._

The crowd was cheering, wolf whistling and hooting as the two continued clinging to the other after the end of the song. Yang's face had turned bright red at this point as she realized how tightly she was holding onto Jaune and how tightly wrapped in his arms she was. They separated and then returned to the outer circle as the next pair, Sabrina and Xarik were called forward.

"Um uh Jaune… I um well I don't know if…" Yang trailed off as the embarrassment settled in. Jaune looked at her confused as he put a hand behind his head to scratch it awkwardly. He had never seen Yang like this and it was definitely cute, he hoped he wasn't disappointing her at the very least. A smile graced Yang's face when she glanced his way and then quickly looked away to pay attention to Sabrina and Xarik.

"Now I present Sabrina and Xarik who requested….lets see here uh (Myth & Roid theater D)" Segal announced as people looked on in wonder at the unfamiliar title.

Sabrina and Xarik were a giggling mess as they stepped out into the center of the ring and could feel all eyes on them. As soon as the song began, everyone's jaw dropped as the entire tempo hit. Sabrina grabbed a hold of Xarik's hand and the two started a mirror dance placing their palms together, circling, clapping, and twirling to the music. People cheered as the tune was catchy even if they didn't understand the words.

At the end the two girls bowed and hugged before joining the outer ring once more. Yang gave them a thumbs up. She was honestly impressed with their display as they seemed more on the shy side but still got out there. They waved back as Jamie bounced over to them giving them a hug and congratulating them.

"Ahem, that was definitely a unique style that I hadn't seen before. Well done girls!" Segal announced as everyone clapped.

"Alright, now for the moment I'm sure you all were waiting for, the line dance! And the song we are gonna move our bodies to will be... Drum roll!" Segal continued on as everyone thrummed the tables or banisters together.

"The Electric Slide!" Segal announced as excited whispers filtered throughout the crowd.

"All competitors to the center, anyone else is welcome to join in but please be mindful to not mix yourself into their group as I'm judging them collectively." Segal finished as he switched music.

Everyone got in to 4 lines with the center made up of the 12 dancers and then the music started and everyone danced. Sliding left and right at " **It's Electric!** " Everyone jumped in and keeping in time with the song sang along with the lyrics. The energy in the room hit an all time high as "It's Electric" was shouted out and the whole room shook.

"10/10 to all of you that was great" Segal announced as the song ended.

As the line dance ended, everyone dispersed for a 10 minute break and Jaune and Yang went upstairs and passed Segal making their way out onto the balcony to stand in the fresh night air. The moon was still high in the sky glowing slightly down on Vale and from their position they could see out over the roofs of many warehouses, overlook the city, the port and sea. The sound of boats signaling their docking could be heard even from the club. It was a peaceful night.

"Hey Jaune…." Yang started as she looked up at the sky, avoiding his gaze for the moment, a blush on her face as she could only describe all of her feelings as a mix of happiness, want, and a hint of jealousy.

"Yeah?" Jaune asked as he stood by her, looking out across the water towards Beacon, however only the top of the Academy was in view from their low point in Vale.

"Why did you kiss Pyrrha?" She asked quietly as she stood there still refusing to meet his eyes.

"... what?" Jaune said defensively, surprised by the question

"Why did you kiss Pyrrha?" Yang asked again her hand clenching the railing tightly as she felt her feelings start to get the better of her.

"I um, I like her, and she has been there for me, like you, and I care about her, same as you, I just... things went forward in a way I wasn't expecting. Do I regret it? No, but we can only go forward from here." Jaune said as he put a hand on Yang's shoulder.

She flinched as she finally turned and looked at him, her eyes glistening slightly. She looked into his eyes trying to find any reason to not believe him and discovering none, wrapped her arms around him hugging him close. A few tears slid down her face out of the sight of Jaune as they stood there, out in the open, their surroundings growing noisier as Jaune returned the hug and put his chin on the top of her head.

"Hey, if there's one thing I learned from my mom and dad, it's that anything can work out…" Jaune said with a comforting smile as a memory came back to him of a conversation he had overheard in the study between his mom, dad and another woman with black hair who seemed familiar but always was fuzzy in the back of his mind.

 _They were talking about him oddly enough and his "condition" or whatever that word meant. He made a note to ask his sister Mavis about this "condition" and stood by the door listening as they spoke._

" _You know if you keep this up (_), you will not be welcome in our home anymore!" His mother said coldly as she looked at the woman who shook her head and looked angry. It was difficult to make out her face even though he could picture his mom and dad clearly._ Despite clearly remembering the conversation the name of the mystery woman escaped him.

" _I'm just saying, it's in his best interest if you let me supervise him for his safety, what is the point of being godmother if I get no interaction with him, you let me watch the girls but when it comes to Jaune you are suddenly a vulture, Heaven." The other woman challenged as she looked over and spotted Jaune standing in the doorway. The woman nodded in his direction and Xavier immediately jumped up and went over to the door as Jaune tried to scurry away from it._

" _I'm sorry, Dad." Jaune said as he felt himself leave the ground as he was scooped up and put on his dad's shoulders._

" _It's okay Jaune, you're not in trouble. Let's go find your sisters and get some ice cream, okay!" Xavier said cheerfully as he carried his son away._

" _Who was that lady, Dad?" Jaune asked as they arrived in the kitchen and Xavier set him down on the floor._

" _Your godmother, don't worry, once they are done bickering over nonsense they will both find ways to pick on me and then the problem will be solved, right?" Xavier said with a chuckle as he pulled out a tub of mint ice cream._

" _Besides, if you know the right way to do things anything can work, take your mom and me for instance, never in a million years woulda you guessed we would end up like this, married with eight children." Xavier finished as he put a bowl in front of Jaune with ice cream in it._

" _Okay!" Jaune said digging into the ice cream…..._

" _Jaune….."_

"Jaune…" Jaune shook his head as Yang flicked his forehead saying his name again. She was staring at him, a partial smile on her face.

"You spacing out there, vomit boy?" She giggled as she put a hand on his cheek tenderly.

"Remembered something odd in my childhood, sorry did you say something?" Jaune wondered, smiling at the feeling of warmth that radiated from her hand.

"Yeah, we gotta get back inside for the third dance…..Shall we?" Yang said expectantly as she hooked her arm with his and led the way back inside.

Following the same order the partners all went up one after another for a slow dance as people sat quietly watching until the end, followed by clapping, cheers or in the case of the two faunus girls, wolf whistling. Jaune could feel some nervousness and from the look on Yang's face he wasn't alone as he extended a hand out to her and felt her clasp hers with his, they heard their names called and proceeded out to the middle of the room.

The lights dimmed down, with a single spotlight shining down on them, Yang tried to keep the excitement from overly showing on her face as she placed a hand on Jaune's shoulder and secured her other hand firmly in his. When he put his hands on her waist she couldn't hold back as a large smile filled her face as the music started.

 _Long ago before we met_

 _I dreamed about you_

 _The peace you'd bring, the songs we'd sing._

 _The way you'd make things new_

 _Then one day, you arrived_

 _I heard your angel cry._

 _Helpless small and perfect_

 _Welcome to your life_

"You know Jaune, a long time ago back when I was really, really small and Ruby had just been born, when my mom... when my mom was still around and I remember a man and boy who showed up to visit Patch." Yang started as she drew in closer to Jaune talking softly so only he could hear her as they swayed to the music.

 _And on that day, I made a vow_

 _Whispered and true_

 _No matter what, No matter how_

 _I made this promise to you_

 _I will cling, I will clutch_

 _I'll hold onto you, I won't turn away._

 _I won't leave, I won't go,_

 _I will stay with you all our days._

"You may not remember this but you visited our home once with your dad. I guess him and my dad are old friends because they started wrestling upon him walking in the door and mom started laughing at them. You were super shy like trying to hide behind one of the chairs." Yang continued as she looked into Jaune's eyes, and felt herself start to get warm as she was unable to look away.

 _Years of joy have passed since then._

 _With time I've seen you grow._

 _Watched you play, new each day._

 _I begged the time to slow_

 _And though I miss the little girl_

 _You've made me awful proud._

 _Funny how our lives change_

' _Cause you're my hero now_

"But it was lucky you were by the chairs because dad tackled your dad carelessly and they crashed into the table. Ruby was knocked away and you moved and caught her but crashed headfirst into the counter. You saved Ruby from hitting the floor. Mom kicked them both out of the house right then and there, she gave my dad a tongue lashing and he was banned from the house for a week for roughhousing in the house." Yang said as her voice got quieter as she rose up on the balls of her feet.

 _But things in life will rearrange._

 _Friends come and go_

 _Don't ever doubt don't ever fear_

 _I'm always here and you know._

 _I will cling, I will clutch_

 _I'll hold onto you, I won't turn away._

 _I won't leave, I won't go_

 _I will stay with you all our days._

 _I will stay with you, all our days._

"This song was for my sister as a promise, but it was also about me keeping one to myself as well, because for the longest time I hoped I would have the courage to say how I felt and continued to feel since then….." She leaned forward and pressed her lips to Jaune's who froze stunned at what just happened as the music ended and oohs and ahhs filled the room. Jaune could feel extreme confusion running through his mind as he fell into the kiss for a moment before his brain finally caught up with what was happening and he leaned back and attempted to create some space between himself and Yang by placing his hands on her shoulders to separate them.

He could see the hurt in her eyes as she felt him push her away. He tried to talk yet couldn't find the right words to say as whispering started to be heard all around them. He grabbed her hand and pulled her a few steps before suddenly his arm got yanked back and he saw Yang, on fire and her eyes a violent-red looking mad. "You jerk." She whispered.

"Oh crap…." was all he could get out before he felt a fist in his chest sending him crashing into the wall and then he keeled over from the impact. Yang looked on in horror as she realized what she had done and moved toward him as Xarik and Sabrina bolted between her and Jaune. Xarik knelt down beside Jaune who groaned and started to sit up while Sabrina stood defensively over her. Xarik looked him over before she surmised overall he was fine, despite the crater behind him. People around them were looking on in confusion as Segal came down from his loft to check on his friend.

He shoved past everyone and got over to Jaune who was sitting up still in surprise at what just happened. After a quick look Jaune got up with Segal's help and Yang who was rooted to the spot could only look on in terror as Jaune came close to her and gently grabbed her hand pulling her with him over to one of the tables. The crowd around them parted as no one wanted to be in their way.

"Jaune I'm sorry, I lost control….." Yang said tears in her eyes as they sat down opposite each other as the tournament resumed without them paying much attention to it at this point.

"Yang…. I don't want to betray Pyrrha, I like you both quite a lot but it would not be fair to her to do things behind her back." Jaune said cutting her off as he squeezed her hand getting her attention.

"Then why not both of us?" Yang asked not really thinking about what she was saying as she leaned forward with desperate eyes.

"It's not that simple Yang…." Jaune said as he questioned in his own head why that couldn't be an option.

" _Well for one it's not normal, but then neither is anyone in my family. Would Pyrrha agree to something like that? Never know until you ask. Can I handle being in a relationship with both of them at the same time? That's a stupid question. Would I be happy? Obviously you dumbass."_ His inner monologue made a counter argument to his every thought as he gave it some more time but still came back to the original dilemma.

He cared about Pyrrha and that was important. He, on his own honor, would never purposely hurt her in any way and this incident, regardless of how he felt, he owed it to Pyrrha to not hide things from her, like with Cardin and the bullying.

"Yang before we go any farther I need to talk to Pyrrha, I can't do something I will regret later if I hurt her in the process. I'm sorry, please understand." Jaune said pulling himself out of his own thoughts to see Yang looking at him with a mixed expression before she nodded and they heard over the speakers that Xarik and Sabrina had won the Dance Off.

The tournament finally over and the victor declared, everyone hit the dance floor in full swing. The drinking and partying took off at the peak of the night as everyone enjoyed a great evening. Yang and Jaune having reconciled for the moment we're chatting with Xarik and Sabrina when Jaune felt a strange and familiar feeling hit him and he felt his knees get wobbly for a moment. A vision of the ceiling collapsing above them and a fiery explosion played in his mind. In the vision he could hear off in the distance the chime of the massive clock tower announcing the arrival of midnight.

"Hey Jaune, are you okay?" Yang asked, noting his glassy eyes and distant look when he abruptly stopped laughing. Both Sabrina and Xarik looked on in concern when the sound of the clock tower chimed and Jaune reacted unexpectedly tackling all three girls onto the ground.

"Hey what's the big Id-" Sabrina yelled as the ceiling exploded feet from where they had just been standing and the night sky was lit up in red as the sounds of explosions echoed around them. The bell could be heard ringing far in the background along with sirens and screaming people. The rest of the patrons scattered, taking cover or running out into the night.

As the dust settled, Jaune got up off the girls and quickly picked up a metal bar to use as a weapon. Just then they heard a declaration that made their blood boil.

"We are the White Fang and you will know the pain us Faunus endure with your own blood!" An unknown voice outside boomed.

Jaune grit his teeth as he could hear the sound of fighting happening outside. Yang and Team Sapphire looked to each other with a determined face before they rushed out into the commotion and paused when they got a good look at the port area of Vale.

Several warehouses were on fire and fighting was taking place between White Fang members and the Vale Police a few blocks away from the club. An airship and two bull heads were exchanging fire back and forth in the sky above. A few more explosions that seemed to be coming from the airship rocked the ground. Small red crystals were being tossed out of the airship as it weaved to avoid the bullhead.

The screaming was what caught Yang's attention as she took off towards the fighting. People were being chased by some White Fang members and Jaune shook his head yelling for her to wait, before taking off after her. Xarik luckily had her gloves on and moved over to the people who looked injured and used her semblance leaving a green glow on each person she touched, slowly healing them. Sean on the other hand turned his attention to the airship that was heading in their direction and looked at Jamie who had already pulled out her Naginata and changed it into its Bazooka form and took aim.

Firing several ice shards at the airship, it veered to the right as she unleashed a barrage on it. Scoring several hits, she smiled as it gained altitude and jetted off into the darkness with the two bullheads pursuing it. Sean gave her a thumbs up and moved over to help people along with Sabrina while Jamie continued to keep watch.

Yang charged into the fray and sucker punched the first mask wearer in the side of the head as another explosion went off on her right. She was angry that her night with Jaune was being ruined and to a lesser extent her home attacked. She hit the next guy in her way sending him into a wall before she stopped to look around at the other White Fang members that had other civilians trapped or pinned on the ground. She tackled the guy that was sitting on a screaming woman and proceeded to pummel the daylights out of him as the woman scrambled to her feet and ran in the direction the White Fang had appeared from.

Jaune looked on as he watched Yang take out three guys with relative ease before he sensed something behind him and ducked as a dagger embedded itself in a wall in front of him barely missing his head. He turned to see another White Fang member with a Grimm mask similar to a Nevermore looking right at him. The attacker began to back up slowly with another dagger ready to throw. Jaune shook his head as he readied to charge however the guy took off running. Jaune sighed with relief and turned to look back at Yang who was cracking her knuckles, enraged, as fire was sparking off her. Everyone in the area had either ran away or was unconscious and bloodied due to her wrath, save for a Vale Officer who came to ask if they were okay before sweeping through the bodies handcuffing people to poles or benches and removing masks.

Jaune walked up to Yang who was standing in the road, seething, and facing in the other direction. He placed his hand on her shoulder causing her to whip around with her fist raised ready to strike. He gave her a smile as she lowered her hand and looked around the area. Her semblance died down as angry tears formed in her eyes. She grabbed ahold of Jaune and crushed him in a hug as she started crying. He held her in his arms as they stood there, the sound of city life and sirens becoming all they could hear.

"Yang it will be okay, we need to help the injured and wounded. Then we need to help the Vale police stop the rest of the White Fang if there are any left in the area." Jaune said as he let her go from his arms and pulled her back toward Raptorz were they found Jamie, Xarik and Sabrina helping a few more people. Sean was nowhere in sight but there was a couple of White Fang members unconscious on the ground.

"Sean went with a Vale officer that way. We're fine. Go help them, okay." Jamie said worried about her partner as she continued to stand guard over the injured.

Jaune nodded. "Don't worry, we'll bring them back safely." He and Yang took off in that direction, the sound of fighting and gunfire ringing in their ears once more as they went down two blocks and found a little girl who was hiding. She said she saw a policeman and a boy run down the block a few minutes ago. Yang and Jaune thanked her and told her to go back the way they had come for safety.

They went a few more blocks before they ran into more fighting, a shootout was taking place and on the other side of the courtyard they could see Sean, taking cover on the ground behind a low wall. The officer next to him seemed to be injured and the other two officers farther back were giving them cover fire, to keep the White Fang from getting to them.

"Sean, hang tight. We're coming!"Jaune yelled as an explosion rocked the ground causing him to fall to the ground as dust filled the air.

 **~~~BEACON 90 minutes ago~~~~**

Earlier in the evening after Jaune and Yang left, Pyrrha had just returned from the tower having spent an hour contacting her mother and sharing all the joy Beacon as well as a certain blonde, who was currently nowhere to be found, had brought her. The last place she had to look was Team RWBY's room, which would be unlikely since the Ice Queen for whatever reason could not stand Jaune. She knocked lightly and then stood up straight, waiting with her hands behind her back.

A few moments passed and the sound of the door opening abruptly made her take a small step back as Ruby looked at her with a huge smile.

"Pyrrha!" Ruby declared as she waved the redhead into the room and slammed the door shut behind her.

"Hey Ruby, how are you? Hello Weiss." Pyrrha asked as she saw Weiss studying at her desk. Weiss smiled and a waved in response and shot a small daggered glare directed at Ruby for making noise.

"I'm doing great! I got all my homework mostly caught up with and we have a mission tomorrow! And of course my baby is completely polished and sharpened so we're ready to slice and dice!" Ruby announced as she plopped down on her bed and swung her legs giddily. Pyrrha smiled and took a seat on Yang's bed and looked around the room.

In all honesty she never really spent much time in here regardless of the fact that their rooms are right across the hall and they were all friends. It was always a little bit of a surprise to see the bunk beds as well as all the random knicknacks each team member had. She was kind of envious in that regard because outside of her armor and weapons she didn't have anything besides three photos, one of home with her mother and father, one of Sanctum and the most recent addition was of Team JNPR and RWBY after the food fight covered in random food but all smiling and laughing.

Pyrrha looked up as she realized both Ruby and Weiss were looking at her with concern as she realized she had zoned out for a moment. She quickly raised her hands in front of her, smiling and waving them.

"Sorry what was that?" She asked politely giving her undivided attention back to Ruby who snickered and asked again.

"So how's it going with Jaune, we uh noticed you and him have been pretty close like this almost always." Ruby said as she entwined her hands together and then attempted to pull them apart to show what she meant.

"Oh, well things are… things are great, I'm so happy to finally have him notice me and well you know... We're going out and the way he treats me like a normal person and not a super star or something is the best feeling." Pyrrha said her face aflame as she opened up about her relationship with Jaune tossing the personal information out onto the table.

"But I'm worried….. There are things he isn't telling me, or rather things he can't or won't….. I don't know, but I can see it on his face sometimes, something's on his mind, eating away at him. I know I should probably not talk about this without him around, but I am scared that he is going to disappear or something or even leave me and it frightens me beyond anything I have ever faced in my life." Pyrrha quietly spoke as a few tears formed in her eyes.

"But I will always stand by his side and help him, make sure he is safe and protected just like he does for me. I…..I…. love him… I love him Ruby, I LOVE JAUNE WITH ALL MY HEART!" Pyrrha practically yelled as she felt a swell of emotions flood out. She had been keeping this to herself ever since Jaune woke her up and kissed her. She put her head in her hands, hiding her face, as she could feel tears pouring out.

"Pyrrha…." Ruby said as she moved to sit by her friend and put an arm over her shoulder.

"It will be okay, I know it will. Jaune would never leave without saying something to at least someone….." Ruby continued as she turned and gave Pyrrha a hug, which Pyrrha accepted gratefully as she wrapped her arms around the small reaper.

"You're right Ruby, thank you….." Pyrrha said wiping her eyes as she sat back up and realized Weiss was still in the room with a very strange expression on her face.

"Weiss, you okay?" Pyrrha asked as she locked eyes with the Ice Queen.

"Ye~ah, Just it's odd seeing so many emotions but they're not coming from Yang, I kinda feel like I'm being insensitive and a jerk since I don't really have much experience dealing with others' problems, sorry." Weiss said as she got up and moved over by the girls and put a tentative hand on Pyrrha's shoulder.

"Thanks, Weiss." Pyrrha and Ruby said simultaneously causing them to look at each other and blink before bursting out into laughter. This confused Weiss who thought that might be laughing at her.

"Anyways… Pyrrha, is Team JNPR going on a mission tomorrow as well?" Weiss asked trying to shake off the feeling of being the butt of a joke.

"Yes, although we had planned to just go out to Forever Fall to help clear out some Grimm and then take the rest of the day to catch up on studies, goodness knows Jaune needs the extra time." Pyrrha said smiling as she thought about him which reminded her. "Have either of you seen Jaune, I've been looking for him for about an hour now and he is not answering his scroll." Pyrrha asked, looking hopeful at the two girls who glanced at each other and then shrugged.

"I haven't seen him. I've been studying. Ruby has been here most of the day as well. Blake is in the Library and Yang went down to the garage about 2 hours ago to work on her bike…." Weiss said as she tapped her pencil on her chin, thinking.

"Pyrrha! Do you want to go spar?" Ruby suddenly jumped up excitedly as she grabbed Crescent Rose and her hoodie. Pyrrha smiled and nodded figuring Jaune would show up eventually from whatever he was doing as long as it didn't involve Cardin again. She got up and went across the hall to grab her gear and also sent another message to Jaune asking where he was.

Ruby smiled as she stood waiting at the door, internally she was kinda sad to see Pyrrha worried but she didn't want to see her sister sad either and it wasn't like Jaune and Yang were actually out on a date.

' _It was just a preplanned event that they are going to and it wasn't like they were gonna get in any trouble there, right…..'_ Ruby thought to herself as Pyrrha poked her and asked if she was ready.

"Yup, let's go!" Ruby cheered as they made their way down to the sparring arena for some late night practice.

They arrived down at the arena after a few silent minutes. Ruby was thinking that this was the first time in awhile she had been alone with Pyrrha. She had to admit she completely admired her for her combat prowess and also envied her in the same way she envied Yang for being mature in every way. It wasn't as if Ruby was in a hurry to grow up but she still wanted to be acknowledged as a woman.

They set the conditions and started without many words. They both worked up a great sweat as Pyrrha would block the sniper rounds and return with suppressive fire forcing Ruby to dodge only to put Pyrrha back on the defensive as the little reaper would come spinning in trying to land a solid hit on her. She was enjoying herself as it had been awhile since she faced someone near her level without it being a 4 on 1 like in CRDL's case. There was an overly happy smile on Pyrrha's face at that memory that caught Ruby's attention and took it as a sign to go all in. She fired several more rounds before bunny hopping over Pyrrha and then dashing forward trying to catch her from behind.

Pyrrha dipped using her semblance to angle the scythe above her head so it barely missed, causing Ruby to smile as she now had her undivided attention. They continued at it for a good hour with Ruby going through several cartridges and managing to land a solid poke into Pyrrha's side with her pointer finger causing Pyrrha to jump. Ruby giggled as she danced away however she wasn't able to get Pyrrha again who, on the other hand, had landed several strikes on Ruby, including one very accurate spear toss that had caught her cape and pinned to the wall for a moment.

"Not like this! Not like this!" Ruby whined in a high pitched voice as Pyrrha pounced on her with her shield and got ahold of her arms ending the spar. They laughed as Pyrrha removed Milo from the wall freeing Ruby. She couldn't help but laugh as they took a minute to catch their breathe and relax.

"Pyrrha, you are an amazing fighter, really." Ruby said finally not wanting the silence to grow.

"You are as well Ruby, you truly are a gifted young girl and will most likely one day be even better than me." Pyrrha said with a smile as she looked at the dent in her shield that was caused by Ruby continuously hitting with the sniper rounds.

"Couple more and you might've actually got through my shield." Pyrrha gushed with pride at her friend's skills.

"Oh stop it." Ruby mumbled, embarrassed, as she pulled her cape up by her face. She really was happy to hear that especially from Pyrrha and it was exciting to know she had an actual chance at facing her 1 on 1 in the arena.

"Ruby, thank you for spending some time with me. I guess I've gotten so used to having Jaune around I forget what to do when he's gone." Pyrrha started suddenly causing Ruby to flinch at the notion.

"Pyrrha, I….." Ruby was cut off as they heard what sounded like an explosion followed by a fireball shooting up into the sky over Vale as several other explosions following the first. They both fell silent as the sirens started up and they could see what looked like gunships engaging in an aerial battle as smoke started to rise up into the air.

"We should go now and find out what's going on." Ruby said jumping up and offering a hand to Pyrrha who took it gratefully. They started running back to the dormitories when both of their scrolls beeped, Ruby yanked hers out and saw Yang's Aura hit the yellow on her scroll.

She also had a message from Blake. ' _Where are you, Yang's in trouble'_ Ruby hit the locater and kept going.

Pyrrha could see Ruby's scroll and then looked at hers to see Jaune's Aura was still green but also near yellow.

"Don't tell me that they are….. JAUNE!" Pyrrha yelled as she took off with Ruby on her heels as she changed directions heading for the airships.

"Pyrrha, wait!" Ruby called to her as she arrived at the landing bay and saw three pilots on duty, two were playing cards at a table and the third was smoking a cigar on his own enjoying the night.

"Gunny, we need you to fly us to Vale, now!" Pyrrha yelled catching everyone's attention as Gunny turned to look, smiled and heartily replied, "OKAY!" He got into the bullhead and started the engines. Ruby jumped in after Pyrrha and they were about to take off when Ruby told Gunny to wait, pointing out the girl with a bow running right to them. As soon as Blake jumped in they were off on their way to Vale to find their teammates **.**

* * *

~Author Note~

Hey everyone! So first things first, I deeply ask for forgiveness for my absence due to family life and other things. I first want to mention my awesome editor for keeping tabs on em throughout my bad times these last few months and also to ReviewerDWJ for hitting me up to make sure i was still alive as well as the fact that I have a full on writing plan while I've been away. I cant promise set days for each chapter but I will actively be working on this continuously. Something I wanted to touch because it was asked by someone awhile ago on how me writing pre V4 and whatnot. I plan to go my own route with maybe some elements from V2-3 and the characters but otherwise it is still going to be a fanfic of a fun idea that spun out after V3. I hope everyone is well since were nearing the last 3 episodes of Volume 4 and well I am scared for Qrow my man. But I believe!

Anyways anyone is welcome to hit me up anytime or shoot questions. Drop a review i do always look forward to see what people think and hope you all like it. Cheers to the end of the world in 2017.

I plan to go to RTX 2017 as well as in the midwest to cosplay as Jaune, Qrow and at my sisters persistence Ozpin.

Look forward to Chapter 8 as its already started and should be a cruise to get finished because truly some of seven had me stumped but We persevered. Happy friday!


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